The Dream Theory
by notjaneausten
Summary: Sheldon Cooper has been dreaming of a girl with emerald eyes ever since he was a child; are they destined to meet in real life or will he have to make do with only seeing her in his sleep? AU fantasy with snippets of the show in later chapters. Usual disclaimer applies...own nothing, earn nothing, love everything!
1. Chapter 1

The first time Sheldon dreamt of the girl with the shiny brown hair he was eleven years old and just about to start college. He had been growing increasingly nervous and fretful all day and it had taken a whole batch of his Meemaw's chocolate chunk cookies to get him to calm down. His mother Mary had made him go to bed earlier than usual and brought him up a glass of warm milk. "Now then Snickerdoodle, you make sure you drink down every last drop of that milk. I added some extra sprinkles of moon dust in it so that you will have nothing but sweet dreams."

"Oh Mama…I'm not a baby, I don't believe in fairy tales like Missy does anymore." Sheldon gave his mother an exasperated look and she leant over the side of the bed to smooth his hair back from his pale forehead.

"When did you get so grown up on me, Shellybean? It seems like only yesterday I was walking you into Kindergarten and now you're studying stuff that I can't even pronounce…" Mary caressed the side of her son's face and pressed a soft kiss against his cheek. "Settle down now and make sure you get a good night's sleep; don't forget that we need to leave extra early in the morning so that we can drop Missy off at middle school before we head over to the college."

"Thank you for coming in with me Mama, I feel a whole lot better knowing that you'll be sitting right next to me the whole time." Sheldon gave his mother a half smile and she tapped the end of his nose playfully.

"It was either me or your Meemaw, and I think the two of you would have far too much fun when you should be learnin'. I'll come with you for a few weeks and then we'll see if you feel up to going it alone." Mary plumped her son's pillow into shape as he rolled over onto his back and slid his arms under the comforter.

"Tighter please." He requested and Mary pulled the covers higher around Sheldon's shoulders and smoothed them completely flat with the palm of her hand.

"Better?" She asked, and Sheldon wriggled slightly lower before nodding; she picked up the empty glass from the nightstand and switched off the lamp, plunging the room into darkness. "Do you want the nightlight left on for a little while?"

"No, I'm okay you can leave it off." Sheldon replied in a quiet voice and Mary hesitated at the doorway; hearing the hesitation in his young tone.

"How about if I leave the door slightly ajar just until Missy and George come up to bed?"

"Okay…I'm going to sleep now." Sheldon nodded slightly and then scrunched his eyes up tight as he willed himself to sleep, Mary smiled faintly and slipped out of the room; pulling the door nearly all the way closed until just a faint sliver of light shone through the narrow crack.

"Goodnight baby, pleasant dreams."

"Night Mama." Sheldon whispered into the darkness and was finally alone with his thoughts. Tomorrow he would be the very first person in his family to attend college and it was a big deal in the Cooper household. It had been a nightmare two years attending the same High School as his elder brother, George; and all Sheldon had wanted to do was study hard so that he could finish as soon as possible.

_"Hello…are you a grown up person?" A young girl tugged on the hem of Sheldon's t-shirt and he looked around him with a puzzled frown. It seemed as though he were standing in the middle of a deserted zoo with just the animals for company…and a petite brunette with wire rimmed spectacles. _

_"I asked you a question…are you real?"_

_"Real? Of course I'm real, that's an awfully strange question to ask isn't it…What makes you think I'm not real?" Sheldon looked down at the girl who was twirling a lock of her hair between her fingers._

_"I'm usually all by myself when I dream and now you're here."_

_"Ah…so this is a dream then? That makes sense, Mama would never let me come to the zoo without her or Meemaw."_

_"What's a Meemaw?" The girl asked curiously, tipping her head back slightly so that she could look up into the boy's face. A soft smile spread across his angular features as he thought about his Meemaw._

_"My grandmother, she's always been called that." _

_"Oh, mine likes to be called Grandma; she lives all the way over in San Diego…I think this might be San Diego zoo; I remember coming here to see the monkeys once when I was visiting."_

_"There must have been something in the milk Mama gave me, I can almost smell the animals from here." Sheldon gazed around him, as the girl tugged the hem of his shirt again._

_"So, are you a grown up or not?"_

_"Not…I'm just tall for my age." _

_"Oh…I was hoping to speak to a grown up, mother says that I'm too big to snuggle in with her and Daddy anymore and I got frightened in my room. It's scary with all of the lights out and sometimes I have nightmares." The girl shuddered a little and the boy moved a little closer to her side._

_"Mama left the hall light on for me tonight, I get a little scared of the dark sometimes too."_

_"Really? But you're soooo big!"_

_"I'm only eleven, how old are you?"_

_"Ten." The girl said and then scuffed the dirt with the toe of her sneaker. "Well…I'm nearly ten; but I'm going to college next year…I'm going to be a scientist so that I can play with monkeys all day."_

_"I'm starting college tomorrow…it's a little scary so Mama is going to sit with me until I don't feel scared anymore."_

_"You're lucky…when I go to college I have to go far, far away…somewhere called Masso…Massa; oh shoot, I can't remember the name of the place; I must be getting sleepy." The girl rubbed her eyes and leant a little against the boy's side. _

_"Massachusetts?" Sheldon said and felt the girl nod against his arm. "Do you want to sit down for a little while and watch the monkeys play?" _

_"Okay." The girl slipped her small hand into Sheldon's and let him lead her over to a small wooden bench outside of the monkey enclosure. Real Sheldon would have shied away at her touch, but dream Sheldon didn't seem to mind the tiny fingers wrapped around his hand at all. They watched the monkey's play for a while and then he felt a warm weight slumping against his shoulder and glanced down to see the girl resting her head on him. "Can we meet here again sometime?" She asked quietly and Sheldon gave a little hum under his breath._

_"I don't know how we even got here today, I was asleep in my room and then woke up here."_

_"Where do you live? Maybe I can come and see you in 'awake' time."_

_"Galveston, Texas."_

_"Oh…" The girl sighed disappointedly. "That's too far away, I live in California." _

_"What's your name? Maybe we could write to one another instead?"_

_"My Daddy calls me Angel…but that's not my real name." The girl opened her mouth to tell the boy her name but found herself all alone on the bench once more. "Oh…I guess he woke up." _

"Sheldon! Wake up honey…we're gonna be late if you don't get moving!" Mary bustled around Sheldon's bedroom, pulling back the curtains to let the warm Texan sunshine pour into the room. "Get yourself in the shower, breakfast will be on the table in ten minutes so you'd better make it snappy." She glanced over to where her son had his face turned into his pillow and saw the soft smile on his peaceful face. _I guess the milk did the trick, looks like he had sweet dreams after all, _she thought, loathe to wake him from his slumber but knew that he would hate to be late on his first day. Mary leant over to shake Sheldon gently awake, and he mumbled something like 'Angel' as he began to open his eyes. _My sweet boy's finally seen the light!_ Mary clasped her hands together and sent a brief prayer toward Heaven, and Sheldon finally woke fully.

"Mama? Why're you prayin' over my bed like that? You know I don't believe in all that hogwash and folderol."

"But Shelly you were dreamin' of the angels…I felt sure that it was a sign that you were beginnin' to believe." Mary sat on the edge of her son's bed and brushed his fringe back from his brow, and Sheldon frowned as he shook his head.

"No I wasn't…I dreamt I was at the zoo; there was a girl there and her name was Angel…I wanted to see the koalas but we stayed at the monkey enclosure." Sheldon pouted at the memory and Mary chuckled a little as she rubbed his lean shoulder comfortingly.

"There, there Shellybean…it was just a dream, maybe we'll go and see the koalas in a few weeks once you've settled into college; would you like that?"

"Okay, Mama. I need to visit the bathroom now, could you wait for me downstairs?" Sheldon twitched on the bed, his bladder feeling like it was fit to burst but he hated anyone being within hearing distance when he visited the bathroom. Mary smiled in understanding and rose from the bed.

"Smiley face pancakes?"

"Yummy!" Sheldon waited until she had closed the bedroom door before racing into his small bathroom and whipping down his pyjama pants. "Pee for Houston, pee for Austin, pee for the state my heart got lost in…and shake twice for Texas." He kept his eyes averted and only touched himself where completely necessary as he completed his morning ablutions; going straight to the sink after flushing to scrub his hands with antibacterial soap despite the fact that he showered immediately afterwards.

"Shelly? Mama says breakfast is ready!" A high pitched voice coming from the hallway had Sheldon scrambling into his pants and pulling his Captain America t-shirt over his head in double time.

"You can't come in here! I'm not dressed yet!" His anxious reply sent his twin sister into a fit of giggles as she started calling to their elder brother George.

"Georgie…Sheldon's got his pee-pee out!"

"Missy!" Sheldon's scarlet face appeared around the edge of his bedroom door as he yanked it open to glare at his sister. "Shut up!"

"You shut up!"

"I told you first!"

"Hey…settle down you two." George ambled out of his bedroom, casually dressed in his usual school outfit of stonewashed denims and a football shirt. "You ready for your big adventure, squirt?" He scooped Sheldon up under his arm and rubbed his knuckles over his brother's head; making Sheldon squeal.

"Put me down George! You'll wrinkle my shirt and I'll have to get changed again." Sheldon jabbed his bony elbow into George's rib and his brother set him down on his feet.

"Gonna have to man up now that you're a college boy, Shelly…I'm counting on you to keep an eye out for some of those Texan hotties for when I go up next year."

"George, Uncle Stumpy said that you were thick as soup and you didn't stand a snowball's chance in Hell…I didn't understand the rest of it but I don't think it was too good…" Missy tossed back her shoulder length hair and placed a hand on her hip. "Does that mean that you're gonna have to repeat another year at High school?"

"Melissa Cooper! You ought not to listen in doorways, what have I told you about repeating things adults say in private conversations?" Mary glared up from the bottom of the staircase and Missy looked down at her feet, fingers twisting in the hem of her flouncy t-shirt.

"Sorry George…"

"That's better, now all three of you come on down and eat." Mary waited until George drew level, before placing a tender hand against his jaw. "George isn't dumb…he just wanted to concentrate on his football; isn't that right George?"

"Uh…yeah, gonna pull my GPA up this year and go off to college with my lil' brother…two Cooper men on campus, those girls won't know what's hit them!" George straightened up his shoulders and stood a little prouder, Sheldon mirroring his pose; and Mary's eyes dampened a little when she saw that her youngest son was only a few inches smaller than George's five feet nine, it seemed like only yesterday when she was cradling her Shellybean in her arms.

"I could tutor you…if you wanted." Sheldon quietly offered in a nervous voice, and George glanced down to see his brother edging slightly away. He'd been known to have a bit of a temper on him when roused, and it made George feel a little guilty that Sheldon would feel scared of offering him help.

"I might just take you up on that Shelly…if you ain't too busy with all of your own work." George replied with a faint smile, and Sheldon grinned as he nodded his head enthusiastically.

"Oh, I'll have plenty of time; I've already read most of my syllabus and worked out when to hand in my assignments."

"Of course you have." George reached over to give his brother another noogie, but relaxed his hand at the last second to drop it on Sheldon's shoulder instead. He gave it a light squeeze and then nudged Sheldon gently toward the table. "Go on, college man…eat your breakfast before it gets cold; when you get home tonight I'll show you my list of classes and you can tell me what I need to brush up on." Sheldon ran off to sit at the table and Mary reached over to rub her hand along George's arm.

"That was a nice thing you did for Sheldon there, honey. I know he's been dying to offer you help for ages."

"I know…I was too proud to accept help before, I mean he's my little brother for cripes sake! Sorry, Mama." George immediately apologised for blaspheming in front of his mother and Mary let it slide on this occasion. "I don't even care if the guys rag me for it, I wanna do well and make something of myself…just like I know Sheldon's gonna do."

"I'm proud of you, darlin'…Just know that I'll still love you even if you end up working the cash register at Home Depot…" Mary placed a gentle kiss against George's jaw and frowned a little as she saw Missy stuffing balled up tissues in her training bra when she thought no one was looking.

"Or in Missy's case probably Hooters…" George murmured as Mary wandered off to gently steer her daughter in the direction of her bedroom for a little mother/daughter chat before school. George caught Sheldon's snort of derision from the breakfast table and they smirked a little in shared amusement before Sheldon finished his breakfast and said that he was going to perform one final check of his college bag before Mary got back.

George watched him wander off and grinned to himself…he was proud of his little brother, it must have taken a lot of guts for Sheldon to decide that he was ready for college, and he wouldn't be surprised if he decided that he didn't want or need Mary accompanying him every day. George glanced down at his watch and swore a little under his breath as he grabbed the last slice of toast from the rack and ran for the door.

"Ma…I'm heading off now. Shelly, good luck with your first day and don't forget to check out the ladies for me!" George yelled up the staircase and just caught Sheldon's dismayed look as he peered out of his bedroom. "You da man, Shelly…give 'em Hell!"

"Language, George!" Mary called from within Missy's bedroom and George chuckled a little as he opened the front door, calling out a brief apology as he left. "That boy…" Mary smiled faintly as she glanced over at Sheldon. "Ready sweetheart?"

"Ready Mama." Sheldon gripped the strap of his Batman messenger bag so tightly that his knuckles turned white under the pressure and Mary stepped forward to take him into her arms.

"Don't be scared, snickerdoodle…"

"I'm not scared…just a little nervous or excited, I can't quite pinpoint the exact emotion. Perhaps I should try Kolinahr in the car?"

"Anything you say baby." Mary didn't quite understand half of the things that Sheldon came out with sometimes, but if it made him feel better than she was all for it. "Missy! You've got about three seconds to get your butt in the car or we're leavin' without you!"

"Coming Mama…" Missy skipped out of her bedroom and picked up her pink backpack from the stairs and the three of them headed off to start the new school year.


	2. Chapter 2

"Now remember what I said George, read through all of the questions first and then start answering them. Don't dawdle too long if you can't answer one, skip ahead and then you can go back to it if you have time at the end." Sheldon sat cross legged on the end of his bed and patiently spoke to his brother on the telephone. "It's only to judge your level of understanding at the start of the year, it doesn't go on your permanent record."

"But it's still a test, and you know I don't do so well on tests. I wish you were here to go through some of the papers with me, Shelly."

"Me, too." Sheldon replied quietly looking around the sparsely decorated room, he shifted slightly on the lumpy mattress and swallowed hard. "I don't like it here, George…I think maybe I've made a mistake and should've stayed at home."

"Aw buddy…don't say that. You were so excited when you got the letter inviting you to go…It's a big opportunity for you; my baby brother the professor."

"I'm only a visiting professor, George, not a real one." Sheldon corrected absently, "I had a terrible experience last week and I think I want to come home sooner."

"What happened buddy?"

"I didn't feel at all well and couldn't find anyone that spoke enough English…I just wanted a hot water bottle and maybe a warm glass of milk…what I ended up with the housekeeper who just kept repeating 'Möchtest Du eine Darmspülung?'"

"So what did you get?"

"An enema; apparently that's what you get given as a cure all solution here in Germany." Sheldon said drily and George chuckled. "It's been an experience giving lectures at the Heidelberg Institute but I think I'm ready for something else." Sheldon continued, reaching over to pluck an envelope from his nightstand. "I received notification that I'd won an award last week and I've been offered a place in California to work on my doctorate."

"California isn't so bad, it's only a couple of hours away if we fly. Where's the place?"

"Cal-Tech. It's near Pasadena, they've offered to find me a small apartment and a job while I study."

"Wow, that's some offer Shelly. You'd be crazy to turn it down."

"I'm not crazy, you know mother had me tested." Sheldon immediately countered with a breathy chuckle and George joined in with a rumbling roll of laughter.

"Listen, I'd better go…Dad's got me a couple of shifts at the construction site before school starts again, I'm saving up for my own set of wheels. Speak to you next week?"

"I may be home by then, but if not…sure." Sheldon ran his finger along the side of the old fashioned telephone base unit. "Tell Mama and Meemaw I love them, and tell Missy to stay out of my room."

"Will do…love ya, squirt!"

"You too…bye George."

"Bye."

Sheldon replaced the receiver and lay back on the thin mattress, folding his arms under his head as he stared at the damp patches on the ceiling. He'd been in Germany for nearly seven weeks now and missed the comforting presence of home; everything was strange here and he found it difficult to adjust. Perhaps California would be no better, maybe he should have accepted the offer from Rice University instead? He drifted off to sleep still trying to decide what to do.

_"Hello Doc." Angel's gentle voice had Sheldon turning around to see the smiling brunette sitting quietly on the wooden bench next to him. Her hands were resting gently on her knees, and he could see that she was dressed in her usual attire of sensible knee length skirt and multiple layers of shirts. "It's been a while." _

_"New glasses?" Sheldon asked and when Angel raised a hand self-consciously to touch the frames he gave her a shy grin. "They suit you, I like the rectangular frames better than those round ones you had before." _

_"Thank you."_

_"I thought we decided that I was going to be Data?" Sheldon wasn't surprised to see his dream friend, over the years they had appeared to each other whenever one of them was in need. After dismissing the idea that one or the other was a product of their rather fertile imaginations; they both agreed not to delve too deeply into their 'real lives', keeping their proper names to themselves and never discussing their friendship with another person._

_"That was before you began work on your doctorate, it seems only fitting that I call you 'Doc' now. I've only just finished working on my first and here you are with a masters and one doctorate under your belt while you think about getting a second."_

_"Well, I did get a head start on you by a couple of years. How's the world of yucky, squishy things anyway?"_

_"Nothing much has changed…What's going on with you? There must be something bothering you otherwise we wouldn't be talking like this." Angel turned her upper half slightly to trace her finger across the faint worry line that seemed permanently etched on his brow and then brushed back the hair that had fallen across his forehead with a soothing stroke. _

_"Mmm…that's nice." Sheldon murmured, leaning into her touch and then opening his eyes wide and scuttling backwards on the bench. "Oh my…that's a little distracting."_

_"Good, it was supposed to be…took your mind off your worries for a second though didn't it?" Angel grinned cheekily at her companion, and he blushed a little under her gaze before turning back to look at the monkeys in the habitat._

_"I'm having a bit of a professional crisis…Last week I received notification that I've been granted The Stevenson Award and offered a chance to work on my second doctorate at a university back home; they've said that I can draw a salary at the same time as I study…but I'm supposed to stay here for another two months and I'm not sure they'll hold the offer for that long."_

_"Which would you rather do? Stay here and be miserable or go back home to start studying again?"_

_"Go home." Sheldon said without a moment's hesitation, and Angel grinned as she patted his shoulder._

_"There's your answer then. I've got to go, I'm due at the airport in an hour and can't be late."_

_"Where are you off too? Or is that too personal a question?"_

_"I've been offered the chance to join a team in Norway for a few months; they've been doing work similar to my thesis and it will be great to see some of it in practice." Angel glanced over her shoulder and rose up from the bench. "See you around doc…maybe we'll bump into another for real one day."_

_"Yeah…maybe." Sheldon looked down at his fingers twisting together in his lap and took a deep breath, "I was thinking that maybe we could write…Angel?" He glanced up to see that she had done her usual disappearing trick and he sighed heavily. "I guess it's better this way, at least no one gets disappointed."_

"Herr Cooper? Dokter?" A repeated tapping on his bedroom door roused Sheldon from his deep sleep and he let out an alarmed squeak when he saw the looming shadow of the housekeeper bending over the bottom of his bed.

"Yes…err ja?" Sheldon pulled the covers up higher over his shoulders so that only his head was visible.

"Spat Dokter…Seine fast zeit…neun uhr." Sheldon understood a little from the fast stream of words and the housekeeper tugged on the end of the sheet as if to express the urgency behind her sentence, but Sheldon kept a death grip on the top cover.

"Danke!" He nodded, and pointed his finger toward his chest and then over to the bathroom. "Dusche…" The housekeeper nodded and relinquished her hold on the sheet as she headed for the door. Sheldon waited until she had closed the door behind her before bolting out of bed to run into the bathroom, making sure that the lock was firmly in place. "Good Lord! Do these people have no sense of propriety at all? That's it…I'm going home; at least I'll be able to rest without being accosted in my sleep." His mind made up, Sheldon stepped into the shower cubicle and zoomed through his morning routine before getting dressed and heading over to the main building to let the Dean know that he would not be extending his lecture sessions past the start of the new term. He felt a little better afterwards, especially when the Dean offered him the chance to travel home in just a few days' time.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: A little snippet coming up from 'The Staircase Implementation', this chapter deals a little more with how 'Angel' helps Sheldon decide how to find a suitable roommate…**

Sheldon walked through the lobby of his apartment building and nearly collided with his roommate, who was on his way out. The younger Asian boy stifled a curse when he saw who it was and shifted his overstuffed rucksack higher on his back and glanced out of the plate glass doors where his girlfriend was cramming boxes into the trunk of her car, she caught his gaze and her eyes widened slightly when she recognised the tall figure in the lobby. He waved his arm in a 'calm down' motion and tried to keep the panic from his face.

"Jin, I'm glad I caught you…" Sheldon stood just at the bottom of the stairwell and held up his hand to prevent his roommate from going any further. "This months' rent is overdue again and you said that you would have it for me last Monday."

"Yeah…Erm…I'm a little short of cash at the moment, can I pay you next week?" Jin said quickly as he tried to brush past Sheldon to get to the main door. "Listen, I've got a class that starts in about fifteen minutes and I'm already running late."

"Very well, please ensure that you have sufficient funds no later than Thursday please." Sheldon asked and stood aside to let Jin exit the building, just as the main doors were about to close the younger man stuck his head back around the door again.

"Just so you know, I'm staying with my girlfriend tonight and probably over the weekend as well…oh, and we're out of milk, bread and cheese." Jin _pulled_ his head back and walked quickly toward a car idling at the curb and Sheldon's shoulders slumped a little as instead of heading up to his apartment he reversed his steps back into the lobby. The two of them had been sharing an apartment for little over eight months and Jin had developed a habit in the last few weeks of helping himself to Sheldon's groceries and it was the third month in a row that he had failed to meet the rent date on time.

One long hour later, Sheldon made his way through the lobby again carrying his messenger bag and a paper sack full of groceries. It was past nine o'clock now and he was bone weary, having worked longer hours at the University to get time on the super computer. He shifted the heavy bag in his arms so that he could jiggle his key in the door, and swallowed a sigh when he saw the disaster zone that was the living room. There was a note stuck on the kitchen counter, held in place by a cracked canister that had previously been his prized Ewok limited edition cookie jar. Sheldon set the paper bag down on the end of the counter and moved the cookie jar so that he could read the note; he sighed again when the jar split apart in his hand and saw that the emergency funds that were usually nestled within the jar were severely depleted.

_Sheldon_

_Sorry for running out on you without warning, but I've decided that university life just isn't for me. I'm going back to Chicago and will forward you this months' rent (and the couple of hundred that I borrowed) as soon as I have it. _

_Jin_

_PS Sorry for breaking the cookie jar… you might want to find a new hiding place that isn't so obvious_

Sheldon unpacked the groceries, placing them on the appropriate shelves in the refrigerator and then crossed over to the living room closet to retrieve a long handled dustpan and broom set. It looked like Jin had dumped the contents of his room in the middle of the living room before packing, the hardwood floor was coated in a layer of dust and Sheldon knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep without giving everywhere a thorough cleaning. He swept up the debris and emptied it into the trashcan before giving the floor a squirt with antibacterial cleanser and mopping it dry. By the time he was satisfied everything was sanitary again, it was past eleven o'clock and he was exhausted, stumbling his way through a shower and falling into his bed to slip into a deep sleep.

_"Hey Doc…you look shattered, tough day?" Sheldon felt a warmth pressing against his side and looked down to see his dream girl snuggling under his arm. Unlike his actions in the real world, Sheldon immediately raised his arm so that she could move in closer, letting out a grateful sigh as he rubbed his chin over the top of her head._

_"Yeah, I needed time on the super computer to test one of my calculations and the only time slot available was between five and eight. When I got home I found that my roommate has moved out; he's missed another months' rent and broke my Ewok cookie jar." She knew instinctively that Sheldon would have been more upset about his broken cookie jar than losing the money as it was a gift from his brother, George when he had graduated from college successfully, all thanks to the tuition from Sheldon._

_"Ahh, I'm sorry Doc, I know how much that jar meant to you." Angel wrapped her arm lightly around Sheldon's waist and gave him a gentle squeeze, feeling him press a soft kiss to her hair._

_"Thanks, you always seem to know how I'm feeling and what to do to make me feel better; I wish you were my roommate. I think we'd get along brilliantly."_

_"I don't know, Doc…you've always said you'd hate dealing with my rampaging hormones…" Angel grinned up at him and waggled her eyebrows suggestively and he hummed under his breath._

_"True, you're the type of girl my Mama always warned me about, only after me for my body."_

_"Not so…I happen to admire your brains as well; you've not forgotten that you promised to leave it to science when you die, have you?"_

_"I haven't forgotten, although as I plan to live forever it's a moot point anyway." Angel laughed at his haughty tone and Sheldon sighed heavily as he ran his lean fingers through her silken hair. "I wish you weren't so insistent that we leave it up to destiny before we find each other, I could do with one of your warm hugs for real right now." Angel rubbed her cheek against his shoulder and reached over to pull his arm around her back nestling into his warm, talc scented embrace._

_"Better?"_

_"Hmm…better." Sheldon murmured as he let himself relax fully, taking in the fragrant smell from her shampoo deep into his lungs so that he'd never forget her unique scent. "Do you think I should get another roommate or try living on my own for a while?"_

_"Why don't you put up an advert on the faculty board at the University? You don't want another student living with you, but it would be different if it was someone more like yourself. You're smart enough to come up with some sort of questionnaire that you can use to weed out the undesirables."_

_"Hmm…I suppose I could ask them a few questions about their work, personal interests and the like…Yeah that could work; thank you." Sheldon pressed another brief kiss to her hair and she snuggled in a little closer before reluctantly pulling away. _

_"I'm working early in the lab tomorrow, we've got another batch of monkeys coming in and I've got the task of performing the initial assessment."_

_"I wish we could stay like this forever, but we'd never get our Nobel Prize that way…" Sheldon let his Angel move away and just before she walked away, she glanced over her shoulder._

_"Maybe one day we'll bump into each other at the supermarket or turn a street corner and there you'll be."_

_"That would mean that we're in the same city…you never said where you actually worked."_

_"I didn't want you to go all crazy stalker on me; my beckoning pelvis is just too hard to resist." Angel winked over at Sheldon and he snorted in response._

_"It's not fair really, you already know so much about me and I hardly know a thing about you."_

_"That's because you like to tell me every little detail about your life…I don't know your name though and I've been remarkably restrained in not looking you up on the University site." When Sheldon just sniffed at her remark she glanced down at her linked fingers and shyly raised her eyes up to meet his. "Amy…My name's Amy."_

_"Amy…" Sheldon stepped a little closer and held out his hand. "I'm Sheldon." Amy stretched out her hand and their hands clasped each other tightly._

_"I work in the biology department over at…"_

"Aargh!" Sheldon sat bolt upright in bed as his alarm pulled him out of his dream just as Amy was about to tell him where she worked. "Dang it! So close…" He leant over and silenced the screeching noise and threw back his covers. He remembered everything he had ever dreamt about his Angel, and now she had a name. "Amy." He murmured the name under his breath and made his way to the bathroom, a soft smile flittering across his face as he prepared for the day.

Later that afternoon, he had received three calls regarding the advert he had posted on the community board of the physics department. Two prospective applicants he dismissed straight away, one being female and the other wanted to know if it would be alright to bathe his dog in the bathtub, the third call seemed like a possible candidate and Sheldon arranged to meet the man first thing in the morning and went to sleep that night without dreaming at all.

He got up at his usual Saturday morning time of six thirty and settled in his lawn chair with a bowl of cereal to watch some classic Star Trek episodes; he was excited to see a trailer advertising a revamped version of a childhood favourite; Doctor Who. "Ooh…that's something to look forward to." Once his double airing of Star Trek had finished, he made a mental note to check the internet for possible airing dates for the new Doctor Who show just as there was a knock at the door. "Hmm…five minutes early, I don't know whether to mark that as too eager or delightfully early." Sheldon picked up his clipboard and headed over to check whether it was indeed his prospective tenant.

"Yes?" Sheldon pulled open the door slightly to see a slightly rumpled looking man holding a piece of paper in his hand. The man looked up and checked the address against the paper in his hand.

"I'm Leonard Hofstadter. I called you about the apartment. You said you…"

"I know what I said. I know what you said. I know what my mother said March 5th 1992." Sheldon looked the man over and held his pencil poised above his clipboard. "What is the sixth noble gas?"

"What?" Doctor Hofstadter looked puzzled at the sudden question and Sheldon sighed impatiently.

"You said you were a scientist. What is the sixth noble gas?"

"Uh, Radon?" Doctor Hofstadter answered hesitantly and Sheldon bit back another sigh as he made a notation on his clipboard.

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

"Telling you?...Telling you." Doctor Hofstadter nodded decisively and Sheldon hid a slight smirk as he bent his head over his prepared questionnaire again, before looking up with his next question.

"All right. Next question. Kirk or Picard?"

"Oh, uh…Well, that's tricky." The other man scratched his head as he gave the question careful consideration. "Um...Well, original series over 'Next Generation', but Picard over Kirk."

"Correct. You've passed the first barrier to roommatehood. You may enter." Sheldon stood back from the entryway and waved the other man through.

"Oh…this is pretty nice." Doctor Hofstadter, Leonard, gazed around the sparsely decorated living room and waved his hand over to a step of stairs leading to a hallway. "The bedrooms are back there?"

"That depends." Sheldon replied slowly and Leonard's brow wrinkled in confusion.

"I don't understand. Their existence is conditional?"

"No. But your ability to perceive their existence is conditional on you passing the second and third barriers."

"There's three?"

"Each more daunting than the last. Have a seat." Sheldon waved his hand toward the two lawn chairs set up near the bookcases in the living room.

"Okay." Leonard moved toward the chair on the left and Sheldon immediately threw out his hand to stop the other man moving forward.

"No! That's where I sit."

"What's the difference?" Leonard glanced between the two chairs and Sheldon moved to protectively place his hand on the back of 'his' lawn chair.

"This seat is ideally located, in relation to the heat source in the winter and a cross breeze in the summer. I also faces the television at a direct angle allowing me to immerse myself in entertainment or game play without being subjected to conversation. As a result I've placed it in a state of eternal dibs."

"Can you do that?" Leonard asked and Sheldon sat down in 'his' chair with a satisfied sigh and murmured something under his breath, looking up with a slight smirk.

"That's latin for 'my chair, my rules'." He leant forward to pick up a clipboard. "Now, you said on the phone that your area of study is physics."

"Yeah, experimental physics."

"Hmm. You'd be going to the University every day?"

"Yes."

"And you have a vehicle?"

"A car." Sheldon glanced up at Leonard's quick response and made a scribble on the paperwork, but in his mind he'd already decided that this doctor was shaping up to be an ideal roommate; it all hinged on the next couple of answers.

"And you'd be willing to drive me?" Sheldon held his breath as he waited for Leonard's response.

"Well, can't you drive?"

"I can." Sheldon's eye began to twitch and he bent over the clipboard to hide his face. "I choose not to."

"Okay, I suppose I could drive you. Well, that's a point in my favour, right?"

"Last question. In a post-apocalyptic world which task would you assign the highest priority? Locating a sustainable food source, re-establishing a functioning government, procreating or preserving the knowledge of mankind?"

"Uh, I'm gonna go with preserving the knowledge."

"That's correct. FYI, I would have accepted any answer other than procreating." Sheldon laid the clipboard aside and rose up from the lawn chair. "Come, I'll show you the rest of the apartment."

"Good, I passed the barriers." Leonard followed Sheldon down the hallway and grinned widely, only to be halted with Sheldon's quietly murmured statement.

"The second barrier. Don't get cocky." As the morning went on, Sheldon was more and more convinced that Leonard would fit quite well into life at Los Robles…provided of course that they could get his bathroom habits and bowel movements running to tight order!


	4. Chapter 4

**AN – Ah, Ramona…This chapter is centred around how Sheldon asks for Amy's advice on how to 'get rid' of Ramona, I've juggled things around from 'The Cooper-Nowitzi Theorum' episode…hope you enjoy!**

"And now…to tell you about the Theoretical Physics Department is Dr. Sheldon Cooper." Leonard picked up his bottle of peach Snapple and led a round of applause to herald Sheldon's entrance into the lecture room. "Dr. Cooper." Leonard said again, glancing nervously at the door marked 'authorised personnel only' and there was a muffled murmur from the corridor.

"Forget it."

"Excuse me." Leonard set the bottle down on the lectern and opened the door to peer into the corridor. He lowered his voice so that it didn't carry into the classroom. "Now Sheldon, we both agreed to do this."

"This is a waste of time; I might as well explain the laws of thermodynamics to a bunch of Labradoodles."

"If you don't do this, I won't take you to the comic-book store." Leonard's threat immediately brought Sheldon into the classroom; his face peering around the edge door.

"Hello." Sheldon cautiously made his way over to the lectern and sniffed as the scent of burning plastic hit his nostrils; he glanced over to see the burning embers of what used to be a rather expensive helium-neon laser. "Nice work with the laser, by the way." Sheldon smirked over at his roommate and saw him try to hide the bottle of Snapple behind his back. "Looking out at your fresh young faces I remember when I too was deciding my academic future as a lowly graduate student. Of course, I was fourteen and had achieved more than most of you could ever hope to; despite my 900 bed time. Now, there may be one or two of you in this room who has what it takes to succeed in theoretical physics. Although it's more likely that you will spend your scientific careers teaching a bunch of fifth graders how to make papier-mâché volcanoes with baking soda lava."

"Oh, good God." Leonard leant his head against his palm and wondered if there was any way he could stop the Dean of Physics from hearing about the complete disaster that Sheldon was creating with every word dropping from his lips.

"In short, anyone who told you that you would someday be able to make any significant contributions to physics played a cruel trick on you. A cruel trick indeed."

"And it just gets better and better…" Leonard murmured from the corner, praying that an earthquake would swallow up the ground from under them, anything would be preferable than having to hear the Dean lecturing them both on how not to persuade a bunch of undergraduates that physics was the way forward.

"Any questions?" Sheldon gazed at the blank faces and sighed. "Of course not. I weep for the future of science." He stated and turned to leave the hall. "Now, if you'll excuse me, the latest issue of 'Batman' is out." He headed for the corridor and called back into the room just as he went through the door. "Come, Leonard."

"Laser demonstration's looking pretty good now, huh?" Leonard quipped as he collected his laptop from the lectern and followed Sheldon back into the physics department.

The next afternoon, the guys were eating lunch in the cafeteria when Leslie Winkle stopped by the table. "So, Dumbass, I heard you made a grad student throw up last night." Sheldon glanced up from his salad and replied slowly.

"The truth can indeed be a finger down the throat of those unprepared to hear it. But why should I cater to second-rate minds?"

"Because first-rate minds call you "dumbass"?" Leslie suggested with a smirk and Howard stifled a chuckle behind his napkin. Sheldon bristled with indignation as he tried to think of a suitable comeback.

"Oh, yeah? Well… you're a mean person." Leslie was about to retaliate when they were interrupted by the arrival of a young woman who leant over the table to speak to Sheldon.

"Excuse me, Dr. Cooper, I'm Ramona Nowitzki, I was at your talk last night. I think you're just brilliant."

"That is the prevailing opinion."

"Oh, now I'm gonna throw up." Leslie grimaced at the sickly sweet tones of the grad student and raised her coffee cup in salute. "Laters, Leonard." Leonard waved in farewell and Ramona immediately took a seat at the end of the table, leaning forward to murmur quietly to Sheldon; ignoring Howard's attempt at mild flirtation.

"Dr. Cooper, I've read everything you've published. I especially liked your paper on grand unification using string-network condensates and was wondering how you determined that three-dimensional string-nets provided a unified picture of fermions and gauge bosons?"

"Amazing, an intelligent Labradoodle."

"Woof." Howard leant forward and nudged Ramona's arm and she shifted slightly in her seat.

"The fact is I'm quite close to a breakthrough in showing how neutrinos emerge from a string-net condensate."

"Oh, my God, that would change the way we view the entire physical universe."

"It's what I do."

"You know, I'd love to hear more about how you intend to add neutrinos. Could we get a cup of coffee sometime?" Ramona leant forward eagerly only to slump a little when Sheldon said that he never touched the stuff. "Well, it doesn't have to be coffee. How about dinner?"

"I do eat dinner."

"Great. What if I brought food to your place so that we could talk more?"

"That would be acceptable. On Mondays, I eat Thai food. Mee krob and chicken satay with extra peanut sauce from Siam Palace."

"You got it. I already have your address." Ramona sidled away, leaving the guys gaping at Sheldon in amazement.

"What a nice girl." Sheldon continued eating, blissfully unaware of the looks being directed at him from across the table.

"Sheldon, do you have any idea what just happened?" Howard asked with a smirk, already knowing that Sheldon didn't see the almost creepy way that the girl already had managed to get his address details.

"Yes. Apparently I'm getting a free dinner." Sheldon stated simply and loaded his empty plate onto the tray to slide it into the waiting cart. "Good day, gentlemen." He nodded in farewell as he left the cafeteria, already looking forward to dinner that evening; he just loved chicken satay from Siam Palace!

Four gruelling days later the grin had long since faded, somehow Ramona had virtually taken over every aspect of his daily life and was now camped out on the couch. Sheldon was lying face down on is bed, having retreated into his room for some privacy at it was the only room that Ramona had not found her way into. "Aargh…it's a nightmare." He let out a muffled shriek into the pillow and then rolled onto his back to stare at the ceiling; his mind was exhausted from working constantly and he needed to switch off just for a little while. Sheldon slowed his breathing and closed his eyes, feeling everything drift away until he was completely relaxed and floating on a calm oasis of tranquillity. "Come on, Amy…if there was ever a time I really need you, it's now." Sheldon focused on relaxing his mind completely, bringing the last image he had of Amy into the centre of his mind…

_"__Sheldon? What's the matter?" Amy appeared out of nowhere and for once they seemed to remain in his room rather than at the zoo. She stood at the bottom of his bed and looked at his stress lined face. _

_"__Boy, am I glad to see you..." Sheldon whispered and patted a spot next to him on the mattress._

_"__Why are you whispering?" _

_"__I don't want her to hear me." Sheldon pointed a finger toward his bedroom door and glanced nervously at it, as if he expected Ramona to start pounding on it, demanding to know why he was still awake. _

_"__Don't be silly, you know we're the only ones that can hear each other. Suppose you tell me what's bothering you…You've never pulled me into a nap before, it was like you were yanking me toward you; it's a good job I'm working from home today." Amy perched on the edge of Sheldon's bed and he immediately tugged her next to him, curling himself around her back and resting his head on top of her hair._

_"__It's simply horrible, Amy…I've got myself into a bit of a bind and I don't know what to do!" Sheldon tightened his grip on Amy and she gently ran her hand along his exposed forearm to calm him down._

_"__Why don't you start at the beginning? Tell me everything and don't leave anything out."_

_"__A grad student came up to me in the cafeteria and professed an interest in my paper on grand unification. She wanted to know a little more and offered to buy me dinner so that we could talk a little more about it. I didn't see the harm so she came over to the apartment with takeout…"_

_"__She came here? Wow__** that**__ was fast work…" Amy couldn't help the note of jealously that crept in her voice and she immediately disliked the woman for getting to share a meal in person with her dream friend._

_"__Hmm, apparently I should've been clued in on the fact that she managed to get hold of my address even though it's not a matter of public record." Sheldon shuddered a little and Amy stroked his arm again, and he let out a wistful sigh. "It was nice at first, having someone revere me and fawn over my work; but then it started getting a little weird…Do you know she banned me from playing Halo at Koothrappali's the other night? And I wasn't even allowed to play paintball this morning either!"_

_"__I'd like to know what she's doing sleeping on your couch!" Amy muttered crossly and Sheldon pulled her around slightly so that he could look at her face._

_"__That's part of the problem…She won't go home! She keeps telling me that my friends are holding me back…I'm beginning to hate her; it's like that awful 'Fatal Attraction' movie that Howard made us all watch…I expect to come home and find a bunny boiling in a saucepan any day now."_

_"__Yeah, but it's more likely to be a bonfire of your comic-books rather than a cute bunny." Amy quipped and Sheldon sucked in a sharp breath._

_"__Don't even joke about something like that…" He shuddered at the thought and Amy let out a quiet chuckle, having already found out years ago that if you wanted to stay on Sheldon's good side, you never disrepected the comic-books._

_"__You're gonna have to pull out the big guns if you want to get her to leave." Amy suggested and patted his cheek. "You need Penny."_

Sheldon woke up from his nap and crept out of the apartment while Ramona was still sleeping on the couch. He tapped quietly on Penny's front door in his routine ritual and murmured her name in a low voice. "Penny…Penny…Penny."

"Sheldon, honey, I've told you, it's a small apartment, you only have to knock one time." Penny pulled the door open wider and looked at her neighbour, frowning when she saw the worry lines marked on his face.

"Please, please, I don't have a lot of time. Look, Ramona finally dozed off, and I need you to help me get rid of her." Sheldon moved closer to Penny's apartment and she realised that he was being completely serious.

"Get rid of her how?"

"I don't know, but apparently she thinks we're in some sort of relationship, and well, you seem to be an expert at ending them." Sheldon looked anxiously over his shoulder toward his closed apartment door as if he expected Ramona to suddenly spring out at any second.

"Excuse me?" Penny gasped, a little offended at his remark and Sheldon tried to explain.

"I see man after man leaving this apartment never to return."

"Okay, first of all, it is not man after man…and secondly, I would have thought that you would have been pleased that a woman is finally paying attention to you after all of this time."

"I don't need that man eater paying me attention. I already have..." Sheldon was just about to tell Penny about his burgeoning feelings for his dream girl when he heard a noise coming from inside his apartment. "Hide me." His eyes held that deer in the headlight look as he heard the unmistakable sounds of Ramona calling his name.

"Hide you?" Penny parroted, she was sure that Sheldon had been about to tell her that he did have someone in his life, whether it be male, female or sock puppet; and was bitterly disappointed when she heard Ramona calling him from across the hall.

"I formally request sanctuary…I'll spill the beans about anything you want to know if you'll just let me inside." Penny was just about to drag him through the door when Ramona pulled open the door to 4A and glared into the hallway.

"Why aren't you working?" She propped her hands on her hips and tapped her foot against the carpet, and Sheldon felt his insides quiver…and not in a good way.

"Um… she distracted me." He thought quickly on his feet, and whirled around to shake his finger in Penny's direction, mouthing an apology before turning to speak. "I told you, Penny, I don't have time for your nonsense, I have important things to do." Sheldon bolted for his apartment and hid behind his whiteboard, using it as a shield so that he wouldn't have to talk to Ramona any further. "I need a plan…" He muttered under his breath and started scribbling furiously with his marker. "Yes…that might work; change that to that…and transpose that over there..." Ramona came into the living room, and smiled in satisfaction as she saw him hard at work; she picked up a magazine and started leafing through it; already imagining the glory of seeing her name in print right alongside his.

A few hours later, Sheldon picked his moment; choosing to look up from his whiteboards as soon as Leonard came through the front door. "I've got it!" He exclaimed excitedly. "I finally reconciled the black hole information paradox with my theory of string-network condensates!" Ramona walked over to glance at his equations, not really understanding half of what he was pointing at, but nodding as she touched the board lightly.

"It's unbelievable! It's paradigm-altering!"

"And I could not have done it without you." Sheldon twisted his lips into a parody of a smile and glanced over at Leonard; jerking his head subtly toward the door. Leonard's eyes widened as he realised that Sheldon had finally worked up the courage to get rid of Ramona on his own; now that his work was finished he really didn't need the aggravation of having her shadowing his every move; it had been great at first, almost like having his own minion…but now he just found it irritating.

"Oh, please, I just offered a little encouragement." Ramona preened as Sheldon leant slightly forward, cupping his hand around her elbow as he gently steered her away from his work.

"It was a lot more than that. You helped me work out the masses of all the fermions, and you pumiced my hammer toe. How can I ever repay you?" Sheldon laid on his southern charm thickly and let his accent slip through to round out his cultured tone, and Ramona sighed softly as she fluttered her eyelashes at him. Nearly there, Sheldon thought to himself, just a few steps further…

"Well, would you consider naming it the Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem?" Ramona suggested with what she thought was a sultry smile.

"Who's Nowitzki?" Sheldon asked, blinking a little in confusion.

"I'm Nowitzki."

"Oh, you want me to share credit?" Sheldon halted mid step and felt his pent up frustration and hidden fury threaten to explode out of him. Ramona just nodded her head and kept smiling, unaware that Sheldon Cooper did not share credit with anyone…let alone a clingy grad student with an overbearing control complex! "Get out!" Sheldon jabbed his finger at the front door and Leonard opened it with a smile, Ramona looked confused at the strange turn of events.

"But…"

"Out!" Sheldon yelled again, and Leonard gave Ramona a helping hand…straight in the small of her back to help her out of the door; she turned around to demand an explanation…only to hear the lock twisting into place and the deadbolt sliding into place. Mouth gaping open in a combination of shock and disbelief, Ramona turned to walk down the stairwell, passing Penny who was on her way up.

"Oh Ramona, leaving already?"

"Bite me!" Ramona snarled back, her previously sweet and sunny disposition vanishing, leaving behind the bitter and twisted freak that she really was. Penny grinned to herself as she walked up the last few steps to the fourth floor, pausing on the landing when she heard the familiar sound of the Star Wars theme drifting out from across the hall.

"Oh, Obi Wan…I've missed you so; I promise never to let anyone come between us again!" Sheldon's loud proclamation made Penny smile and shake her head as she let herself into her own apartment.

"Whack-a-doodle…"

"Excuse me, Dr. Cooper, I'm Kathy O'Brien. I just finished reading your paper reconciling the black hole information paradox with your theory of string-network condensates, and it just took my breath away." A perky voice approaching their lunch table a few days later had the guys looking up to see another young, female grad student leaning over Sheldon, clutching a copy of his paper to her chest and looking up at him dreamily.

"Maybe when I publish it, I'll include an inhaler." Sheldon let out a breathy chuckle and sighed a little when no one else seemed to laugh.

"Would you possibly have any time for me to pick your brain?" The girl, Kathy leant forward and eagerly awaited his response.

"Let's see, today's Thursday. Thursday nights, I eat pizza from Giacomo's. Sausage, mushrooms, light olives."

"Great. I'll bring it to your place. I have the address." There were muted groans from around the table as they watched the girl sidle off, sending Sheldon a smile over her shoulder.

"What a nice girl." Sheldon remarked as he picked up his fork to spear a tomato from his salad.

"Sheldon, do you see what just happened here?" Leonard asked, and Sheldon glanced up from his meal with a grin.

"Yes, I'm getting a free pizza. I'm on a roll."

"No! Don't do it!" Sheldon sat bolt upright in bed, and screamed aloud; his breath catching in his throat as he tried to control his panicked breathing.

"Sheldon? Buddy…I heard you scream…is everything okay?" Leonard rushed into the room and flicked on the light switch.

"Leonard! Please tell me that I didn't agree to have pizza with another grad student?" Sheldon's eyes were wide with panic and Leonard hid a grin as he perched on the end of the bed and patted Sheldon's foot.

"You mean that sweet girl, Kathy?"

"Oh Dear Lord…it's a waking nightmare." Sheldon groaned as he ran his hands through his tousled hair. "You'd have thought that I'd have learnt my lesson properly the first time." Leonard decided to let Sheldon off the hook and come clean.

"Don't worry buddy, I think that lesson took better than you expected. There was a girl who asked you to look over her papers and offered to buy you dinner…she ran for the hills when you told her that it needed to be large enough to feed six and she'd have to wait until your calendar was clear….I think she left when you got up to 2019." Sheldon let out a sigh of relief and slumped back against the pillows and Leonard chuckled, patting Sheldon's shoulder as he rose up from the bed and headed for the door. "Night Sheldon."

"G'night Leonard."


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: This chapter is an altered version of 'The Maternal Congruence' and we hear exactly what Sheldon thought about the unfortunate incident with Leonard's mother...**

"What was that again?" Penny was over at 4B helping the guys decorate their Christmas tree, well helping Leonard anyway as Sheldon was desperately trying to pretend the holiday season wasn't even occurring.

"Hmm?" Sheldon murmured distractedly from his laptop, "Oh, I simply asked if Leonard had remembered that I volunteered him to pick Beverley up from the airport in the morning."

"No, I got that part…the part I'm having a little confusion with is the bit where Leonard didn't tell me that his mother was going to be in town visiting." Penny carefully replaced the glass bauble back in it's protective covering and glanced over at her boyfriend, who was looking a little uncomfortable at the scrutiny.

"Um…I was trying to avoid you dashing for the airport on your way back to Nebraska?" Leonard suggested hopefully, and then slumped onto the arm of the couch. "Penny…my mother can be…well, a little difficult sometimes."

"Leonard!" Sheldon swivelled around in his desk chair with a look of surprise on his face. "I'm surprised at you, my conversations with Beverley have always been a delight, why just last week…"

"Wait! You spoke with my mother last week?" Leonard frowned at the statement and Sheldon nodded enthusiastically.

"Of course, Beverley and I Skype each other every Monday while you're out getting dinner. We also watched the live screening of Stephen Hawking's last lecture series…fascinating." Sheldon sighed wistfully in memory of the thrilling lecture and then shook his head to bring himself back to the present. "We've shared many a lively debate over a cup of tea…a few months ago I even reviewed one of Beverley's papers… 'Quantum Brain Dynamic Theory'…she didn't seem to mind one bit when I disproved her theory. It will be lovely to spend some quality time with her again. Mmm…I wonder if she would like to read my paper on oscillation modes..?" Sheldon tapped his keyboard thoughtfully and then grinned. "What am I saying? Of course she will!" He happily set his laptop aside and rummaged through his desk drawer, pulling out stacks of neatly bound papers and placing them on his desk. "Ooh…Mathematical relations between photons and fermions…that one's bedtime reading material for sure…" Penny made a crazy sign in the air against her temple and Leonard grinned.

"Yeah, if only we had swapped mothers…that would have been perfect!"

"I can hear you whispering over there." Sheldon warned quietly, and then spun his chair around with a grin. "But I agree, that would have been a hoot!"

Sheldon wasn't laughing so much the following evening though. The night had started out innocently enough, all of the gang gathered together to enjoy dinner at the apartment with Beverley going into analytical mode as she tried to suss out whether Howard was trying to hide his latent homosexuality by entering into a dummy relationship with his 'girlfriend' Bernadette. The guys were getting a little irritated with Beverley's probing questions, but her next remark had Leonard running from the room.

"By the way Leonard, your father and I are getting a divorce." It wasn't so much that she had chosen to blurt out the statement in the middle of a conversation, no…what hurt Leonard the most was the fact that she had shared the news with Sheldon back in September and neither of them had spoken up. Penny offered to drive Beverley back to her hotel shortly after that, but the two women had ended up drinking in the Cheesecake factory and now were on their way back to Los Robles after sinking more than a few shots of Tequila each.

Penny let herself into apartment 4B around midnight, giggling slightly and weaving on her feet; an equally tipsy Beverley followed through the door and they flicked on the light. "Leonard?" Penny called out and Beverley swayed on her feet and Penny wrapped an arm around her waist to support her.

"What the hell is going on?" Leonard appeared from down the hallway, pulling a robe on over the top of his t-shirt and boxer shorts. He'd been struggling to sleep after dealing with everything that his mother had revealed that afternoon; the fact that she had surgery and Sheldon had sent her flowers, Leonard didn't even know his mother suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome. Then there was the divorce announcement, swiftly followed by the fact that Leonard's beloved dog had died over the summer…all things that Beverley had chosen to share with Sheldon rather than her own son. "Are you drunk?" He frowned at the way the two women were swaying on their feet, and his mother actually looked a little softer without her hair scraped back behind combs and her glasses removed.

"Well, I hope so. Otherwise, why would we have stopped at Del Taco? Now, how could you not tell me you were in a relationship with this lovely, charming young woman?"

"Oh, thank you." Penny smiled sloppily at the older woman who gave her a slight squeeze around the waist.

"You're welcome." Beverley replied with an answering grin, before turning back to her son. "Is it because she's uneducated, trapped in a menial service position?"

"What the hell happened to lovely and charming?"

"How come you didn't tell me that you and Father were getting a divorce? How come you didn't tell me you had surgery? How come you didn't tell me my dog died?" Leonard retorted a little sharply, the revelations of the day still feeling like fresh wounds in his mind.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What I hear you saying is that you want a more intimate mother-son relationship." Beverley frowned over at Leonard, her finger tapping against her chin thoughtfully.

"I do." Leonard gave it careful consideration and then nodded. Beverley took a deep breath and then awkwardly wrapped her arms around her son, pressing his face against her chest. After a few agonising seconds, she stepped back and dropped her arms.

"There. It's late. Now, go to bed." She pointed toward the hallway and Leonard obediently shuffled off. Beverley turned to Penny and placed her hand over her chest. "I'm getting a warm feeling spreading through my heart.

"That's the Del Taco." Penny stated firmly and Beverley composed herself just as Sheldon emerged from his bedroom, neatly dressed in his dark blue plaid pyjamas and matching robe.

"Why is Leonard softly banging his head against his bedroom door?" He asked warily as he stepped into the living room and Beverley had a moment of sudden inspiration.

"Speaking of warm feelings, come here." She lunged forward and grabbed a handful of Sheldon's pyjama top, pressing her lips firmly against his mouth. Sheldon was absolutely horrified and his eyes opened wide at the way his friend's mother was smashing her lips against his own, and his hands flapped uselessly at his sides as he remained perfectly still. Beverley suddenly released her hold on Sheldon's top and stepped back with a slight grimace, "No, I'd rather have the busboy." She grabbed her purse and left Penny gaping after her as she left the apartment. Sheldon let out a muffled shriek and Penny turned around to see him collapse into the armchair frantically scrubbing at his mouth with the sleeve of his robe.

"Oh no…no…no…" He chanted as he leant forward, rocking slightly in the chair as he continued to rub at his face. "It's all ruined…"

"Sheldon, sweetie?" Penny softly called out as knelt at his feet, feeling completely sober as she saw his ravaged expression. He looked up at her and she could see the tears filling his grief stricken eyes. "Tell me what's wrong…"

"Beverley…she ruined everything! I don't think I want to be friends with her anymore…" Penny knew that it must have been something to do with the kiss she had just witnessed and she had a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Sweetie…was that your first kiss?" She asked softly and big tears spilled out of Sheldon's eyes to land with a plop on the back of his hand. He nodded slowly, looking completely miserable and Penny patted his knee as she leant over to pluck a tissue from the faux Rubik's cube on the telephone table.

"I was saving it for...someone special and now it won't be!" Sheldon slumped in the chair and swiped the tissue over his eye before blowing his nose loudly. He had just been about to say Amy's name out loud for the first time and only just managed to bite it back. "She's perfect…beautiful, reasonably intelligent and I wanted it to be with her…" Penny rocked back on her heels a little, having caught Sheldon's slight hesitation.

"Aw…sweetie…you know I'm with Leonard now." Penny patted Sheldon's knee again, and his jaw gaped over in amazement as he realised that Penny actually thought he was talking about her. He coughed a little to clear his throat and then clucked his tongue in amusement, as he shook his head.

"Penny, Penny, Penny…" Sheldon patted her head as if he were an avuncular uncle greeting his niece, "Trust me…you are so not the girl…" He rose to his feet, throwing his used tissue in the garbage and Penny rose up as well, placing her hands on her hip as she glared at him.

"What do you mean…'**so** not the girl'…I don't see any other girls hanging around you, and I'm reasonable intelligent, you said it yourself!"

"Being able to memorise the menu at The Cheesecake Factory does not make you reasonably intelligent, Penny." Sheldon smirked faintly at the idea and Penny started screeching at him.

"I can do a heck of a lot more than that, you whackadoodle! I did go to college you know!"

"And dropped out before completing your first year…I repeat, so not the girl." Sheldon glanced over to see Leonard padding back down the hallway to see what all of the fuss was about, he stopped when he saw Penny glaring over at his roommate and sat down on the top step to the landing.

"Do I even want to know what's going on now?" He asked resignedly and pushed his glasses further up his nose. Penny folded her arms across her chest and snorted as she continued to glare at Sheldon, and Leonard could see the red rimmed eyes of his friend. "Sheldon…have you been crying?"

"You can blame your mother for that one." Penny retorted quickly and Leonard swivelled his head over to Sheldon.

"Aw buddy…don't tell me that she tried to psychoanalyse you too? I thought the two of you were besties?"

"So did I…until your mother ruined everything by practically raping me!"

"Sheldon, she did not rape you…It was just a kiss!" Penny yelled, and Sheldon whirled around to face her.

"A kiss that I certainly did not ask for and one that I was saving the woman I intend to marry! And for the last time, IT IS NOT YOU!" Sheldon yelled back, and panted harshly trying to reign in his temper. "Leonard, I would appreciate it if you could try to explain to your girlfriend that despite her feelings on the matter, she is not the only damned woman on the planet! Now, I'm going to bed…I suggest the two of you do the same, you have to take your mother to the airport at eleven o'clock." Sheldon tugged the belt of his robe tighter around his waist and stalked off into his bedroom, slamming the door loudly behind him.

**AN: Coming up next...what will dream Amy make of the whole incident?**


	6. Chapter 6

_"You seem a little agitated this evening, Sheldon. Anything I can do to help?" Amy's quiet voice coming from the left of him, had Sheldon looking up to see her approach the bench quietly. He shifted over to make room beside him, and shook his head slowly as he continued to watch the Koalas at play. "I see we're focusing on the Koalas tonight, that tells me that you're feeling particularly upset, we usually save these until last."_

_"I'm trying to forget about what happened this evening…It wasn't pleasant at all." Sheldon shuddered a little and Amy shifted a little closer until he could feel the warmth of her body pressing against his arm. _

_"I thought you'd be all giddy with delight and I wouldn't see you for a few days. Wasn't Leonard's mother, Barbara coming into town this weekend?" Amy was a little puzzled, Sheldon had been gushing over the visit ever since he had found out she was coming in for a brief stay._

_"Beverley." Sheldon corrected automatically, and his hand crept down to wrap around Amy's seeking out the comfort of her touch. "And it's down to her that I'm in this tortured state."_

_"Do you want to talk about it?" Amy offered, giving his hand a slight squeeze. "We don't have to stay here if you don't want to, think of somewhere that you feel comfortable and we can go there." Sheldon shut his eyes and in the blink of an eye they were seated side by side in his bedroom. "Your room again, huh?" Amy grinned slightly and nudged Sheldon's hip playfully. He smiled shyly in return and glanced around his private space._

_"It was either here or my spot on the couch, however as that is located in the living room where the unfortunate incident occurred…I think I will be avoiding spending too much time in there in my current state of mind."_

_"Okay, so something happened with Beverley in the living room. Ooh, this is way better than playing 'Clue'!" Amy grinned up at Sheldon and he wrapped his arms around her, bringing her close to his talc scented body._

_"Why is it you seem to always make things seem a little brighter whenever I'm around you? Here I was thinking that it was going to be the worst possible evening and then you appear and it's not so bad after all." Sheldon murmured against the top of her head and felt Amy's slender arms creeping around his waist as she snuggled into his warm embrace. _

_"Ever gonna tell me what happened between the two of you?"_

_"Not yet, let me enjoy this for a little while longer." Sheldon replied quietly, feeling the warm and comfortable sensation of holding Amy in his arms soak through to the very centre of his being. _

_"Fine by me…take all the time you need, I'm not going anywhere." Amy replied, feeling completely comfortable being wrapped in a Sheldon cocoon. "I'd be a little more comfy if we were laying down…but I'll take this." Sheldon immediately shifted position on the bed, without breaking his secure hold and they were soon lying side by side, still completely wrapped around one another but now sharing the same pillow. "Hmm…better." Amy murmured as she nestled her head so that it rested on the curve of Sheldon's shoulder._

_"Mmm…" He murmured in agreement as his hands found a resting place on the curve of her waist and their feet crossed over each other. "It would be even better if it were real."_

_"Doesn't it feel real?" Amy leant her head back a little to peer into Sheldon's eyes and saw the longing in her own heart reflected back in his eyes. She shifted a little higher on the bed and pressed a soft kiss to Sheldon's cheek, lingering a little as the faint scent of his citrusy aftershave hit her nostrils. "Does that feel real?"_

_"It feels nice, but like an echo…not completely solid but a faint reflection." Sheldon replied softly and Amy pressed her lips to his other cheek, keeping them against his skin for a touch longer._

_"How about now?" She whispered huskily, her emerald eyes darkening to a deeper shade of green as she leant back to judge his reaction. _

_"Slightly more substantial that time…" Sheldon replied, and took a deep breath before continuing. "Amy, Beverley kissed me and I hated it!" Sheldon whispered in a tortured voice and she felt a twinge of bitter jealously twisting in her gut. Amy shifted back slightly on the mattress and Sheldon tightened his grip on her waist as he threw his leg over hers, keeping her from withdrawing any further. "Don't go…please."_

_"Why do you think she kissed you?" Amy asked, struggling to keep her tone low and even. Sheldon pondered the question and then grimaced._

_"Penny got her drunk and they both came back to the apartment. I think Penny was a little hurt that Leonard hadn't informed his mother that the two of them were dating again…She just grabbed onto my pyjama top and threw herself at me." Amy shifted back further and frowned as she looked at Sheldon's pyjamas._

_"These pyjamas?"_

_"Dear me, no! I took those off immediately and had to put them straight in the pre-soak hamper; I showered straight away and gargled for nearly three minutes…the stench of strong liquor was most unappealing." Amy moved closer again when Sheldon explained that he had changed his pyjamas before returning back to bed and Sheldon sighed happily as she snuggled back into his arms once again. _

_"So, why was it so horrible? I thought most guys would have been happy to have a cougar throwing themselves at them?"_

_"I am not 'most guys'…I thought you might have realised that by now." Sheldon murmured against her forehead, and Amy smiled at the feel of his breath against her skin…it almost felt like a long series of kisses being dropped every time he spoke and she loved it. _

_"Sorry…but you said you liked being friends with Beverley; she might have been indicating that she wanted something more from you; after all, you are reasonably attractive and have an abundance of intelligence…what's not to like?" Sheldon felt a tingle of pleasure arising from Amy's compliment and then smirked a little. Amy caught his look and jabbed him sharply in the ribs._

_"I know that look, Dr. Cooper…spill!"_

_"Well, Penny was in the room during the ki…'unfortunate incident' and she witnessed my rather humiliating crybaby session afterwards…"_

_"Wait…you actually cried after Beverley kissed you?" Amy shifted out of Sheldon's embrace so that she could see his face while he spoke, and saw his cheeks flush with the pink tinge of embarrassment. "Sheldon, you know you can tell me anything, right?"_

_"I was upset because Beverley stole something precious from me…" Sheldon began and Amy hissed between her teeth._

_"You had sex with her!"_

_"No! Of course not, why…?" Sheldon was astounded that Amy would even think such a thing and then thought about the turn of phrase that he'd used and realised why. "Oh…I see…No, what I meant was I had intended to keep my first kiss for someone special and she took that moment away from me, and I don't think I can ever truly forgive her for that."_

_"Oh…" Amy didn't know why she was feeling so sad at that moment but when Sheldon gently placed his finger under her chin to lift her head up, her spirits lifted when she saw the warmth of his eyes._

_"I wanted to save it for you…" Sheldon confessed softly and Amy threw herself at him as she broke into a soft smile. "Even if it takes another five, ten or fifteen years, I don't want to kiss anyone ever again until I can kiss you."_

_"Me, too…" Amy whispered softly as she snuggled into his arms. "That doesn't explain the smirk though."_

_"Oh…well, I told Penny that I was saving my kisses for the woman of my dreams and she naturally assumed I meant her." Sheldon wisely decided to leave out the part where he had stated his lips were only for the woman he intended to marry, no sense in scaring his girl away before they'd even met. _

_"Hussy!" Amy said against the warm patch of exposed skin of Sheldon's neck and he shivered a little in response. "Ooh, like that did you?"_

_"I might have done…why don't you try it again and we'll find out?" He murmured, his voice low and husky. Amy grinned a little as she moved her lips along the side of Sheldon's neck, softly kissing the skin as she made her way up to his jaw and along his cheek. She hesitated slightly and when Sheldon turned his head toward her and gave her a slight nod, it was all the encouragement she needed. Sheldon hummed a little at the back of his throat at the feather like touch of Amy's soft lips pressing against his own, and felt Amy's answering smile as he timidly moved his mouth a little in response. The sensations coursing through his veins were nothing like he had felt when Beverley had kissed him - that was definite shock followed swiftly by horror and revulsion…when Amy kissed him, it was more like a series of tiny electric shocks jump starting his heart and he began to feel things stirring that he had managed to suppress for years. Sheldon tore his mouth away from Amy's beckoning lips to press a soft kiss against the rapid pulse beating in her neck, feeling her arteries pulse with life as he struggled for breath._

_"So, better or worse than Beverley?" Amy panted out, leaning back a little so that she could see Sheldon's face. The answering grin said it all, but his words had her diving back in for seconds._

_"Beverley who?" _


	7. Chapter 7

It took a while but things were finally back on an even keel between Sheldon and Penny, he no longer assumed that he was the man of her dreams (he was Amy's dream man and that was all that mattered to him) and he was finally conversing with Beverley again after she had apologised profusely and sent him a dozen of her research papers with a note saying that he was welcome to disprove any of them and she wouldn't say a word. Sheldon immediately sent her a Skype request to thank her and things were back to normal.

It was February now and Leonard and Penny were heading out on a pre-Valentines double date with Howard and Bernadette leaving Raj alone in the apartment with Sheldon. Raj had been trying to cajole Sheldon into going out to cruise for women with him and was getting nowhere fast. "We could go to the galleria and walk around?"

"But I don't need anything at the Galleria. Do you need anything at the Galleria?" Sheldon turned his attention back to his laptop where he was in the middle of performing a full backup of his system in order to install a LINUX partition.

"No. We would just walk around and see what's what."

"That's a semantically null sentence."

"Okay, well, how about this?" Raj called out from where he was trawling through the internet for something fun they could both enjoy. "From the university Web site: 7pm to 10pm, Norton Hall Multipurpose Room, mixer for grad students and faculty of the science and humanities departments. Whether you split atoms or infinitives, this is the place to be."

"Well, that's certainly amusing, but I have no interest."

"Please, Sheldon, I'm a young, virile visitor from a foreign land and I need to strut my stuff." An hour of intense negotiation took place and the pair of them finally reached a compromise; Sheldon would accompany Raj to the mixer as long as Sheldon got something in return…and that something was Raj's limited edition 'Green Lantern' lantern.

Two hours later, they walked into the lounge of the faculty mixer and Raj groaned when Sheldon pressed his Green Lantern ring against the lantern and it lit up brightly. "Come on, let's get a drink."

"You know I don't drink, Raj."

"Yeah, well I do. And when my wingman is carrying a Green Lantern lantern, I drink a lot." They headed over to the bar where Raj ordered a screwdriver and Sheldon ended up with a Shirley Temple. Raj scanned the lounge in search of the perfect hook up and ignored the heavy sighs coming from the man at his side.

"So, tell me again what my function is as your 'wingman'?" Sheldon asked as he sipped his bright red drink. Raj lowered his voice to reply.

"You help me run my game." When Sheldon still looked puzzled, Raj waved his hand. "Basically when I lie through my teeth to a woman, you smile and nod." Sheldon practised his nod and Raj grinned. "You've got it."

"Hey, that's pretty cool. What is it?" A pretty brunette approached them and looked at Sheldon's lantern. For a moment, his breath caught in his throat as he thought it was Amy but he saw that the girl was slightly taller and wasn't wearing cute rectangular spectacles.

"It's a limited edition Green Lantern lantern. My friend is looking for someone to copulate with." Sheldon jerked his head toward Raj who stifled a groan, however the girl simply smiled at the two men.

"You're very funny. I'm Abby."

"I'm Sheldon. How do you do?" Raj quickly gulped down a third of his drink and smiled in a seductive manner.

"How do you do? Rajesh Ramayan Koothrappali. Call me Raj."

"Hi, Raj. Where are you from?" Abby turned her attention to Raj and he lowered his voice to a smooth level.

"The mysterious subcontinent of India."

"Ooh. India."

"You know India?"

"I saw Slumdog Millionaire." Abby said as if that explained everything and Raj nodded.

"Well, I'm a slumdog astrophysicist."

"I thought your father was a gynaecologist." Sheldon remarked as he sipped at his drink and immediately apologised when Raj glared at him. "I'm sorry." Sheldon smiled and nodded as a perfect wingman should. Abby turned around as she spotted her friend about to walk past them, and called out.

"Martha, come here." The other woman, Martha, turned and walked over to join them. "Meet Raj and Sheldon. This is my friend, Martha."

"Hi." Martha smiled and raised her hand, she was dressed in a purple hound's-tooth checked cardigan blazer, which made her seem friendlier in Sheldon's eyes, as he thought about how Amy looked in her purple and black striped cardigan.

"Hello." Both men said and Martha's eyes were immediately drawn to Sheldon.

"Is that the limited edition Green Lantern lantern?"

"In brightest day, in darkest night, no evil shall escape my sight." Sheldon quoted as he pressed his ring against the front of the lantern and the lamp glowed brightly.

"Oh, that is so awesome." Martha cooed as she leant in closer to examine the lantern.

"Thank you." Sheldon smiled faintly and then turned to Raj. "Have you chosen one to copulate with?"

Later that evening, just as Sheldon was about to slip into sleep he waved his middle finger at the front of the lamp and smiled happily as the green glow of the lantern lit up his bedroom and he snuggled down under the comforter.

_"So, what is it tonight? Another fight with Leonard over the room thermostat?" The sound of Amy's voice tinged with humour had Sheldon looking around eagerly for his companion. "Over here…" _

_"Amy!" Sheldon hurried over to her side and she greeted him with a warm smile and peck on the cheek. "I don't know why we're here tonight, I had a perfectly enjoyable evening with Raj."_

_"Oh, yeah…what did you two daredevils get up tonight? A rousing game of D&amp;D, Halo or another viewing of 'Return of The Jedi'?" Amy sat down on the bench in front of the primate house and Sheldon sat next to her, immediately wrapping his arm around her shoulder. _

_"Oh, nothing as humdrum as that…I accompanied Raj to a faculty mixer as his wingman and we met a pair of delightful young ladies; one of them even knew that the lantern I was carrying was the limited edition 'Green Lantern' lantern!"_

_"You took a collectible out with you for the evening?" Amy chuckled at the thought and Sheldon looked surprised at the fact she had even asked._

_"Of course, it was the only way I would go along with his foolish scheme; Raj had to give me his lantern if I agreed to be his wingman." _

_"And what about these two girls that you hooked up with?" Amy asked, and Sheldon caught the hitch in her voice; he immediately started stroking his hand down her arm so that their fingers could entwine._

_"Raj did the hooking, I was just along for the ride…Somehow he managed to persuade one of the ladies to accompany him back to the apartment, but Abby would only go if her friend Martha came along too. We ended up playing Rock Band until Leonard came home." _

_"Oh…so no hanky panky?"_

_"Absolutely not!" Sheldon snuggled in closer to Amy, rubbing his chin over the top of her head affectionately as he sighed happily. "Raj wants to see Abby again but I don't need to accompany him now that he's reeled her in, I have the Green Lantern and I'm a one woman man."_

_"Aw…" Amy leant up to press another kiss to his cheek and Sheldon smiled softly as he dropped his head so that they could rub noses. "The day we meet, I'm gonna grab onto you so tightly they'll have to prise me off with a crowbar…"_

_"Promise?" Sheldon whispered as he pressed a series of gentle kisses over Amy's cheeks and the tip of her nose, feeling her wrinkle it up._

_"Promise." Amy gave him that special look reserved for only him, and Sheldon placed a tender, loving kiss against her lips. _

"One minute… Sis n." Sheldon placed a finger in the margin to keep his place and looked up as the apartment door opened a few days later.

"What was that?" Raj asked as he walked into the apartment and took a seat on the couch next to Sheldon. 

"It means come in. It's taking forever to load the new operating system on my computer. I disinfected the kitchen and the bathroom, and now I thought I'd learn Finnish."

"जो भी तुम्हारे नाव मंगाई. That's Hindi for whatever floats your boat. Uh, listen, I got a text from that girl Abby, and she and her friend Martha want to hang out with us again. What do you say?" Raj looked over to see Sheldon twisting his face into a familiar grimace.

"I don't say anything. I merely offer you a facial expression that suggests you've gone insane."

"I don't get it. You had a great time."

"Yes, exactly, I had a great time." Sheldon nodded and placed his Finnish phrase book down onto the coffee table. "That's done, I've moved on to other things. For example, after I learn Finnish, I'm not going to learn Finnish again." Raj leant forward on the couch and pressed his hands together in a fervent prayer.

"Please, Sheldon, I'm a lost Indian boy far from home, and I want a girlfriend and I want her to be Abby, and she'll only come over if she can bring Martha."

"Raj, I highly doubt there is any argument you can make, threat you might levy, rhetorical strategy, plea, invocation, supplication, or… vetoomus that you can employ that would convince me to reconsider." Raj sighed heavily at Sheldon's emphatic statement and leant over to rummage in the large paper bag that he had tucked out of sight, hoping that the contents would swing Sheldon around in his favour. Raj set the item down on the coffee table and Sheldon sighed reverently.

"My Incredible Hulk hands signed by Stan Lee." Sheldon rose to his feet and stood looking down at the plastic hands and twisted his fingers nervously together. He felt a twinge in his gut for what he was about to do, but hoped Amy would understand in the end.

"Oh, my. I've admired these for years."

"So does that mean we can go with the girls again?" Raj asked hopefully as Sheldon slid his hands into the oversized monster hands, bringing them together as he hunched his shoulders over.

"Hulk agree to second date with puny humans!" Sheldon said in a gruff voice, even saying the word date felt like a betrayal; but he dearly wanted to keep the collectibles.

"You can't wear the hands on the date." Raj stipulated and Sheldon sighed heavily, some people really knew how to suck the fun out of life…

"Hulk sad."

_"I can't believe you agreed to a second date!" Amy growled at Sheldon as she paced up and down in front of the bench, the clouds overhead whirling around to cover the sun and the sudden loss of warmth made Sheldon shiver. "What happened to you being a one woman man, huh?"_

_"I really wanted those Hulk hands." Sheldon said quietly, and looked at the ground beneath his feet. "It was a boring date anyway, Abby and Raj were slobbering all over each other for most of the night and I went to bed."_

_"Yeah, so why aren't you in bed right now?" Amy snapped her fingers and they were suddenly outside of Sheldon's room, and her hand was on the doorknob. "What will I find if I open this door, Sheldon? You spooning up to Martha with your Green Lantern shining over the two of you?" Her angry tone practically dripped with venom and Sheldon realised that no amount of collectibles offered from Raj was worth losing her forever. He gently prised her hand away from the door and led her along the hallway to the next room._

_"If you open that door, you will see me sleeping in Leonard's room…alone." Sheldon opened the door to reveal himself curled up in the middle of Leonard's bed hugging a pillow to his chest with a soft smile on his face. "I'm not dreaming about Martha now, am I? You're the first person I think about when I wake up and the last person I think about when I close my eyes at night." _

_"But Martha's sleeping in your bed." Amy pointed out into the doorway and Sheldon tugged her into his arms and held her tightly._

_"I didn't invite her to stay over…Raj and Abby were 'getting busy' in the living room and Abby was the driver. Martha asked if she could hide out in my room and I, as the southern gentleman my raised me to be, said yes. That didn't mean that I was gonna stay in there with her. You're the only person I want in my arms and eventually in my bed…and I'm going to find you one day, I swear. Destiny be damned, I can't wait much longer!" Sheldon's voice grew huskier as he spoke and by the end of the sentence he was practically growling as he captured Amy's mouth in a lush, wet kiss. It was far more intense than the relatively tame kisses they had exchanged in the past, this one involved heavy sighs and licks before Sheldon's tongue trespassed fully into Amy's mouth for the very first time…._

"Aargh! Not again!" Sheldon was ripped from his dream as the sound of Leonard's alarm clock went off with a shrill beep. Sheldon didn't remember setting it the night before and as it was Saturday there was nothing urgent to get up for since Doctor Who had gone off the air for a mid-season break. He rolled over to try and get back into his dream but after half an hour of trying, finally gave up and threw back the covers in despair. "This has gone on far enough!" He stated firmly as he pulled on his robe. "It's time I track that woman down and hogtie her so she can't get away again!" Sheldon pulled open Leonard's door and prepared to storm out into the living room, only to come face to face with Leonard himself who had just got back from Penny's.

"Sheldon, what is Raj doing sleeping half naked on our couch?"

"My spot!" Sheldon shrieked. "Rajesh Ramayan Koothrappali your naked butt had better not anywhere near my spot!" Sheldon's ear splitting tones had Raj and Abby blinking the sleep out of their eyes and swiftly pulling their discarded shirts over their heads.

"I think I'll get Martha and make a move." Abby said with a nervous look toward the hallway.

"Good idea…You think Hulk had a temper? Well, he never met Sheldon Cooper in a pissy mood." Raj agreed and looked over to where a sleepy Martha entered the living room. "Ladies…I suggest we depart this madhouse immediately and reconvene at the coffee shop on the corner where I will treat you both to a fabulous breakfast."

"Sounds great…Let's go." Martha spared a quick glance over her shoulder to see whether Sheldon would make a reappearance and Abby patted her shoulder sympathetically.

"Sorry hun, I guess we were wrong about that one."

"I'm not sure that Sheldon is into anyone in that way, so I wouldn't take it personally." Raj said in commiseration as he led the two women out of the door; not knowing that Leonard and Sheldon could hear every word that he said…


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: I just wanted to say a quick 'thank you' to everyone that has been kind enough to leave me a review so far. Lots of you have said that you want Sheldon to hurry up and meet Amy for real and I promise it's going to happen soon; I've just got a few more twists on another couple of episodes to get through first...I mean who wouldn't want to know what Dream Amy makes of the whole 'Pants Alternative' situation? Maybe Sheldon gets a little more handsy once he's had a few?**

February turned into March and Sheldon was spending every spare minute of his time searching through the thousands of 'Amy's' that he had found on the internet; he still hadn't accepted Leonard's offer of help but knew that it was only a matter of time before he caved in and begged the other man for his assistance. The guys were gathered in 4A to watch the 3D version of James Cameron's 'Avatar' but Sheldon didn't really pay attention to the movie after the first half hour, using the time to conduct another search on his phone. When the results pinged back with yet another four hundred possibilities, Sheldon let out a long drawn out moan and threw his phone onto the coffee table. Howard paused the movie and glanced over at his friend.

"You still thinking about the whole speech giving thing? We said we'd all help you, so chill out and stop spoiling the movie for the rest of us." Sheldon had just found out that he was going to be the recipient of that year's Chancellor's Award for Science and had been initially thrilled with the recognition that was until the chancellor himself rang Sheldon with the news that he was expected to give a speech at the awards banquet.

"I wasn't actually thinking of the speech…I am now though since you brought it up. Thanks for nothing, Howard!" Sheldon folded his arms across his chest and shot Howard a look of haughty distain. "I thought we agreed that your powers would be pretending that you actually gave a crap about my worries? Or did I mishear you?"

"No, I did promise that…"Howard sighed heavily and turned around so that he could face his friend. "So, buddy…what's on your mind?"

"I was wondering if it was possible to run a computer programme that would be capable of searching for a particular set of parameters on say twelve thousand, four hundred and twelve names." Sheldon glanced over to see Leonard leaning forward in the armchair and gave him a subtle nod at his unspoken question.

"It's called 'Google', people use it as a search engine all of the time." Howard quipped lightly and then his expression grew serious as he saw Sheldon's icy stare. "Okay, you know a search engines index tens to hundreds of millions of web pages every day? Well I have a friend over in the State department that is working on using hypertext to produce more accurate search results; he's also involved in working on a coding programme that will help government departments sift through databases of suspect names if they enter a specific set of parameters."

"Oh I see….I was just wondering whether it was theoretically possible." Sheldon squirmed on the couch and started to look uncomfortable so Leonard jumped in with a question of his own.

"What kind of parameters would we be talking? I mean, would he be able to search for a specific person based on approximate age, and physical characteristics or are we talking more specifics such as full name, occupation and all that?"

"I think he said it would do both; you'd start with the basics like name, date of birth, occupation etc and then you narrow it down from there."

"Sounds too good to be true…you wouldn't happen to have a beta copy of the programme that we could mess about with would you?" Leonard asked quite casually, "Might be interesting to see whether we could adapt it to see if anyone was publishing papers on the same theories as us."

"Ho…Hadn't thought of that one." Howard scrambled in his pocket for his phone and scrolled through looking for his friend's number. "I'm gonna give him a call right now and find out; he owes me a favour for hooking him up with…never mind." Howard stepped out into the landing between the apartments to make the call, not wanting the guys to overhear what could theoretically be seen as cybercrime if anyone found out that they were preparing to bootleg a top secret government programme. Raj wandered off into the bathroom leaving Leonard and Sheldon alone in the living room.

"Thank you, Leonard." Sheldon whispered quietly, "I wanted to know whether it was possible, but didn't want to draw attention to what I wanted the programme for."

"No problem buddy, we'll use it to track down Amy and then maybe we can still re-write it to track publications as they happen." Leonard grinned over at his roommate and settle back in his chair as Howard came back into the room, brandishing a smug smile.

"All set…Tim's gonna messenger me a copy of the alpha version of the programme in a couple of days. He says there's a few bugs to tweak still but it won't be traceable back to his department as they've moved on a few versions. I'll bring it over as soon as I get it." Raj walked back into the living room and checked his watch.

"It's getting late, I'd better get going. Don't forget that we have meditation planned for tomorrow evening Sheldon so I want you good and rested before we start." Raj picked up his jacket from where it was flung over the back of Leonard's desk chair and turned around to see the look of distain on Sheldon's face at the reminder. "Don't give me that look, Sheldon…You promised that you would give it a try, if you go into it with that attitude you will never find your inner peace. Namaste…" Raj pressed his hands together and gave everyone a slight bow before turning around to leave.

"Well, I'd better get myself off to bed before Yoda gets all grouchy with me for not getting a full eight hours sleep." Sheldon jerked his thumb toward the door and let out a breathy chuckle. "Goodnight Leonard, Howard."

"Yeah, night Sheldon." Howard waved from where he had got comfortable spread out on the couch now that Raj and Sheldon had both moved. "Okay if we stay up and watch the rest of the movie?"

"Certainly." Sheldon nodded from the hallway and then glanced down at his watch. "You know the rules Leonard."

"I know, no noise after 10:45."

"Good…you'll just have time to finish the movie, but it means no staying up to watch the director's commentary or extended scenes." Sheldon gave them both a brief wave and moved off down the hallway to bed; leaving Howard griping about his pedantic rules and Leonard grinning as he switched the movie back on, after seven long years he was well used to Sheldon's quirks and didn't mind putting up with them.

_"__Congratulations on the award, Sheldon…you must be very pleased with the fact that you've finally got the recognition that you've been after for so long." Amy's friendly greeting had Sheldon looking up from the bench and scooting over to make room for her at his side._

_"__Yes, but at what cost? You know what I was like at my college graduation…all of those people staring up at me waiting for me to start my valedictorian speech, and what did I do? Fall flat on my face when I passed out cold." _

_"__Sheldon, you were fourteen years old at the time; give yourself some credit for being a little more mature now." Amy rubbed a hand over his arm in comfort and Sheldon sighed mournfully as he leant against her side._

_"__Leonard offered to psychoanalyse me to see what the root of my anxiety might be."_

_"__And you really think he's the best judge of that? I've read his mother's work and quite frankly, I'm astonished that he's as well adjusted as he is." Amy grinned up at Sheldon and he dropped a brief kiss to the tip of her nose. "What about the others?"_

_"__Raj is coming over tomorrow evening to try and teach me some meditation tricks, I don't hold out much hope. I've been using Kolinahr for years but that doesn't seem to be helping much in this case. And Penny's taking me shopping for a new suit; she seems to think that new clothes will boost my confidence."_

_"__Hmm…I can see you in unrelieved black, narrow trousers and shiny dress shoes; maybe a slight pattern in the tie?" Amy narrowed her eyes as she tried to picture what Sheldon might look light in snazzy outfit rather than the loud plaid suits that he would normally pick. _

_"__Just one colour? How positively boring…" Sheldon murmured in amusement and Amy grinned up at him as he gave her a gentle squeeze. "Knowing Penny I'll probably end up looking like something out of a nineties boy band…"_

_"__Just try to think of it as one of your costume parties…you put on the suit and you can be anyone you like. From what I remember from the movies Batman's alter ego was a multi-millionaire that liked wearing tuxedo's…Get yourself a nice dark suit and pretend that you're Bruce Wayne for the night…just leave out the part where you have a girl on each arm." Amy pressed a soft kiss to Sheldon's cheek and he hugged her close for a few minutes knowing that it was nearly time for them to say goodbye._

_"__Come see me Sunday night after the banquet?" Sheldon asked as he held onto Amy for a moment longer, she nodded briefly before rising up from the bench and winking at him._

_"__It's a date…Now go to sleep and remember what I said about the suit!" _

Sheldon woke up with a smile on his face the next day, he bounced out of bed and strolled into the living room to prepare his regular Saturday breakfast of cereal with a quarter cup of milk. He sat down on the couch and flicked on the TV, and was soon immersed in a rerun of series 4 of Doctor Who in BBC America featuring his favourite Doctor of the revamped franchise so far, David Tennant. The new series was due to air in the UK in April and he was looking forward to seeing who the new face of the Doctor would be after the regeneration. He had resisted all temptation so far to look up spoilers for the new season online but it had been very difficult.

"You ready for your shopping extravaganza with Penny today?" Leonard asked as he entered the living room and slumped into the armchair. Sheldon replied with a snort and turned his attention back to his breakfast. "She wants to pick you up around ten and take you over to the Galleria."

"Ten? How long does that woman think it will take to pick out a suit?" Sheldon snorted again and placed his empty bowl back on the coffee table. "Amy's mentioned before that she thinks I would look good in a fitted black suit, so that's what I will be aiming for and will not be persuaded into one of Penny's boyband shiny grey suits."

"Aw… I kinda liked you in that one." Leonard shot a smirk over in Sheldon's direction and the other man let out a breathy 'heh' rather than a full laugh. "Have you thought any more about the things you want to put in the search parameters when Howard brings over the computer programme?"

"Occupation naturally, followed by a rough estimation of age and location. I know she lives in California but apart from that, I don't know what else."

"Well, you know the year she graduated from college and Harvard; you could extrapolate some data from that. Let me work on it today, see if I can't sketch out something for Howard to use, I'll tell him that it's for our publication search." Sheldon nodded briefly before collecting his dirty breakfast dishes and placing them in the dishwasher.

"I'm going to take a shower before Penny arrives for my torture session." Sheldon ignored Leonard's chuckle as he bypassed the living room to begin his morning ablutions.

Later that morning Penny led a very reluctant Sheldon into the menswear department of a quite upscale store and dragged him over to the racks of ready-made suits. Sheldon knew exactly what he had in mind (or rather what Amy had in mind) but couldn't see the slim fit types on display. Penny rifled through the racks and from the way her nose scrunched up at the end, didn't appear to be too impressed with what was on offer. After everything that she had put him through over the last couple of years, Sheldon figured it was time for him to have a little fun…

"How about this one?" Sheldon pulled out a garish turquoise number that glittered with shimmering rhinestones and white piping. "I had one just like it when I was six." Penny gagged a little at the idea of the normally staid looking physicist addressing a room full of dignitaries wearing something out of a hill billy hoedown.

"I don't think so, sweetie…" Penny replied with a saccharine sweet smile as she pulled out a charcoal grey suit from the rack. "Why don't you try this one on and see how it feels?" Sheldon tilted his head to the side as he checked out the suit on offer, it looked reasonably tailored but the trousers weren't quite what he had in mind.

"Hmm…I don't like the colour. I'm more Bruce Wayne than Harvey Dent." At Penny's puzzled look Sheldon let out a weary sigh as he explained. "Harvey Dent was a character in Batman that predominantly wore grey suits when he appeared in court, Bruce Wayne on the other hand preferred black suits."

"Fine, why don't you pick out what you think Bruce Wayne would wear then? I'll sit over here and you can try them on in the changing room." Penny waved to a padded armchair over in the corner and left Sheldon rummaging through the racks as she pulled a glossy magazine out of her purse and flicked through the pages.

"Hmm." Penny looked up from her magazine and swallowed a shriek as Sheldon exited the changing room dressed in a garishly checked black and white suit. "This is pretty sharp." He said as he admired his form in the full length mirror, hiding his grin when he saw the expression on her face.

"No, you're wrong." Penny pointed a finger back into the changing room and Sheldon let his shoulder's slump theatrically as he made his way back inside.

"Okay, I think we have a winner!" Sheldon exclaimed as he pulled back the curtain to reveal the snazzy white dinner suit complete with tails.

"Where in the frack did you pick out that one from?"

"The Prom department, where else?" Sheldon gave a little twirl and admired the cut of the jacket. "Okay, so maybe this one is a little too much to wear in front of the Chancellor…it would only highlight the fact that I am such a sharp dresser. I've got one more to try on."

"Go, go…" Penny shooed him back inside and could hear Sheldon pulling off the dinner suit and muttering under his breath. "You okay in there, sweetie?"

"Nearly done…Now, you promise not to laugh?"

"I promise sweetie, come on out."

"What do you think?" Sheldon emerged from the dressing room looking pretty hot in a slim fit black suit, worn over a black shirt and tie; the tie had narrow white diagonal stripes – everything was just as Amy had envisioned in her thoughts and even Sheldon thought he looked pretty slick all dressed up. "Penny?"

"Uh-huh…" Penny just kept nodding and smiling. "That is so the suit that you're wearing tomorrow night."

"I know…can I pick a winner or what?" Sheldon beamed happily as he trotted back into the dressing room to carefully change out of the suit and back into his own clothes. "Penny? Could you see if they have this shirt in maybe a snazzier colour as well?"

"Sure sweetie, what colour did you have in mind?"

"Oh, maybe a nice electric blue…you know the colour of the warp engines of the Enterprise?"

"Okay; I'll see what I can do." Penny wandered off to see if they had the shirt in Sheldon's colour scheme and when she got back he was waiting in the padded chair with the suit carefully draped over his arm. He accepted the shirt and they headed for the cash register to pay. "You were just stringing me along with those other suits weren't you?"

"Maybe I was and maybe I wasn't…guess you'll never know for certain, will you?" Sheldon smirked at Penny as he followed her out of the store with his suit in a protective storage back and the shoes, shirts and tie in a large paper carrier. Penny just growled at him as they walked toward the parking garage and Sheldon grinned at Penny's back as she stalked ahead of him.


	9. Chapter 9

Sheldon wasn't grinning so much a few hours later when a very patient Raj was trying to guide him into a meditative state. They had drawn the curtains and Raj had pulled two round cushions out of his back and plopped them onto the living room floor, ordering Sheldon to get comfortable as he lit a few scented candles and selected Sitar music on his iPod.

"Okay, Sheldon. I'm going to be leading you through a series of meditation exercises. These methods come from the ancient gurus of India and have helped me overcome my own fears."

"And yet, you can't speak to women." Sheldon replied drolly and Raj glared at him as they sat cross legged facing each other on the rug.

"That may be true, but thanks to meditation, I am able to stay in the same room with them without urinating." Raj replied and they both closed their eyes. "Imagine yourself in the one place you feel most at home. Where might that be?"

"Sheldonopolis." Sheldon replied without hesitation. "It's a Sim City I designed."

"Okay, you're in Sheldonopolis." Raj nodded sedately and then stifled a sigh when Sheldon reeled off a list of places in his city that he could be standing. After a few minutes of lively debate, they settled on Sheldon being in Sheldon Square, wearing a button up cardigan that he had purchased in the local Shel-Mart due to the wintry weather. Sheldon then decided to expand his imagination a little further by claiming that a simulated monster was about to attack the city and he had to warn his citizens of the approaching danger. The slamming of the door had Sheldon opening his eyes and peering around the empty room.

"Raj? Just as I suspected…Meditation is nothing but hokum…and those scented candles are making my nose itch!"

_Scene: The award ceremony._

The next evening found the whole gang sharing a table at the awards banquet. Leonard had been offered the opportunity to step up to the podium to perform the introduction for Sheldon and it was now that time.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Dr. Leonard Hofstadter, and it is my very great honour to introduce the winner of this year's Chancellor's award for Science and my good friend, Dr. Sheldon Cooper. But before I do, I'd like to share with you a letter from Sheldon's mother, who couldn't be here tonight." Leonard pulled out something from his jacket pocket and waved it in the air. "Isn't that nice? His mother sent him a letter. She's proud of him. I wonder what that feels like. Dear Shelly. That's what she calls him. Shelly, it's a pet name. You know what my mother's pet name for me is? Leonard. But I digress. Dear Shelly. I am so proud of…" As Leonard continued to speak Sheldon felt little beads of sweat forming on his forehead and he used his linen napkin to dab at the moisture.

"Oh, dear…" Sheldon groaned softly and Penny looked away from Leonard to glance over at Sheldon.

"What's the matter, sweetie?"

"I'm feeling a little dizzy." Sheldon lowered his head to the table and Raj leant over to pat his back in comfort.

"Don't worry Sheldon, you're surrounded by your C-Men."

"That's a stupid name, I can't think why I ever thought it would sound better than Charles Xavier's X-Men. I can't do this; I think I'm going to faint." Sheldon's vision grew hazy as little black spots began to float in front of his eyes. Penny slid her half full wine glass in front of Sheldon and tapped the rim.

"Here. Drink this, it will help you relax." Sheldon picked up the glass and sniffed at the contents.

"Alcohol? You know I don't drink alcohol, I promised my mother."

"Fine." Penny shrugged and turned back to Leonard. "Faint then." Sheldon shuddered lightly as he raised the glass to his lips, turning it around to avoid the smear of lipstick left by Penny on the rim. He drank down the contents of the glass in one quick swallow and then shrugged.

"This alcohol is obviously defective, I don't feel any different." Penny stretched across the table and picked up Leonard's untouched glass, sliding it in front of Sheldon.

"Here, see if this one works." Sheldon picked up the glass and pinched his nose so that he couldn't smell the alcohol as he poured it down his throat. Penny raised her eyebrows at Raj and he reluctantly slid the rest of the bottle across the table where Sheldon refilled his glass as they listened to Leonard ramble on.

"First of all, the projects were totally different. I was showing that classical music nurtures lima beans and makes them grow, but my mother didn't hear me. If you'd like to look at the relationship between nurturing and growth, I'd like to point out that my brother is eight inches taller than me." Leonard had abandoned his introduction completely and was now regaling the audience with an insight of what life was like growing up with a respected psychiatrist for a mother. Sheldon giggled a little as he called out, interrupting Leonard's little rant.

"I'm ready!" Sheldon waved the nearly empty bottle in the air and took another swig as he stumbled up on stage.

"Oh, right. Ladies and gentlemen, our guest of honour, Dr. Sheldon Cooper." Leonard led a round of applause and then was nudged out of the way as Sheldon took his place behind the lectern, swallowing the last of the bottle down before thrusting it over at his roommate.

"Thanks shorty, I'll take it from here." Sheldon picked up the mic and stepped around the lectern to address the audience as he walked along the stage. "All right, you people ready for some fun?" There were a few rumbles of quiet amusement drifting up from the back of the room, but Sheldon was feeling a nice buzz from the wine and he was on a roll. "You have a basic understanding of differential calculus and at least one year of algebraic topology? Well, then here come the jokes. Why did the chicken cross the Mobius strip? To get to the same side, bazinga!" Sheldon nearly shouted out his catchphrase and flipped the microphone over to his other hand as he crossed over to the opposite side of the stage. "All right, a neutron walks into a bar and asks, how much for a drink? The bartender says, for you, no charge." Sheldon peered out among the tables and waved his hand around to capture their attention. "Hello? I know you're out there. I can hear you metabolizing oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide." Sheldon sent a goofy grin down to his table and Penny groaned when she saw how fast the alcohol had hit his bloodstream. She nudged Howard's foot under the table but he was too busy recording the whole thing on his cell to pay her any attention.

"Looks like we have some academic dignitaries in the audience. Dr. Randall from the geology department, only man who's happy when they take his work for granite. Ba-da cha! I kid the geologists, of course, but it's only 'cause I have no respect for the field. Let's get serious for a moment." Sheldon stopped strutting around the stage and crouched down as he leant his elbow back against the lectern. "Why are we all here? 'Cause we're scientists. And what do scientists study? The universe. And what's the universe made of? I am so glad you asked." He took a deep breath and began to sing the elements song… "There's antimony, arsenic, aluminium, selenium, and hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium, and nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium… Everybody! And iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium, europium, zirconium, lutetium, vanadium… Just the Asians! And lanthanum and osmium, and astatine and radium…"

_"__Didn't think I'd be seeing you tonight after the stunt you pulled at the banquet." Amy's amused tone had Sheldon blinking up at her from where he was drooling on his pillow._

_"__Hellooo…" He drawled out as he saw the shimmering silk of her evening gown draped over her curvy figure. "Ain't you as cute as a calico kitten on down south?" Sheldon ran a finger teasingly along Amy's emerald clad shoulders and gave her a smouldering look beneath drooped eyelids as he suddenly threw back the covers in invitation. "I'm feeling mighty fiiinne, how about you hop under here and we really make this a night to remember?" Sheldon waggled his eyebrows suggestively and Amy felt her cheeks flush rosily as she realised exactly what Sheldon had in mind. _

_"__Oh my!" Her fingers fluttered against her open mouth as she stared wide eyed at Sheldon's lean figure sprawled invitingly on the mattress, part of her wanted to leap into action and tear the rest of his clothes off while the more sensible part of her reigned her libido in as she moved slightly away from his tempting offer. _

_"__Aw…" Sheldon pushed his lower lip out when he realised that Amy wasn't going to snuggle under the covers with him and sat up against the headboard, causing the top sheet to pool around his lean hips. "Wassa matter, princess? Don't you like me anymore?"_

_"__I like you just fine Sheldon…I would rather you remembered the first night we share a bed rather than have gaping holes in your memory. What on earth possessed you to gulp down that white wine like it was water?"_

_"__How do you know it was white wine?" Sheldon frowned at her comment, and Amy leant over to brush a tender kiss against his forehead. _

_"__I was at the banquet, sitting a couple of tables behind you. You couldn't see me because I was right next to one of those plaster pillars…but I saw you all right. You looked very handsome up on that stage and I was so proud of you for making the effort. That was until you spoiled it all by getting completely out of your head like that."_

_"__You were there? Right in the same room and I didn't even notice?" Sheldon ignored the fact that Amy was a little cross at him for making an idiot of himself in front of the Chancellor, all of his attention was focused on the fact that for those few short hours they had been in the same room as each other. He rolled over on the mattress and gazed into her glowing eyes and reached out a hand to skim his fingers lightly over her cheekbones. "I can't believe that we were in the same room and neither of us knew it."_

_"__My team picked up their own award tonight just a few minutes after we finished with dinner."_

_"__Oh, I skipped dessert and headed for the bathroom. I got lost on the way back and only just made it back in time for my own presentation."_

_"__I know, I saw you come in as I was sitting back down, and I swear I nearly ran right up to you."_

_"__Why didn't you?" Sheldon shuffled a little closer on the bed and continued to run his fingers over Amy's face, memorising each dip and curve of her features. _

_"__I panicked a little, I guess…My heart was pounding and I struggled to breathe…You looked so handsome in your suit and you were talking quietly with the blonde woman sitting next to you. I guessed it was Penny…why didn't you tell me she was so pretty?"_

_"__Dear Lord, not you as well?" Sheldon sighed heavily and Amy frowned in confusion. "Penny has this mistaken idea that every man she meets will fall instantly head over heels for her, I tried to explain that I didn't find her even remotely attractive but I guess she just isn't getting the message."_

_"__Humpfh!" Amy let out an annoyed grunt and Sheldon snuggled closer to wrap his arms around her as he nestled his head into the curve of her neck._

_"__You're the only woman that I've ever wanted to snuggle up with, darlin'…Mmm, nice and comfy." Sheldon's head had fallen onto Amy's chest and he was now rubbing his cheeks over the valley of her breasts, and snoring gently. Amy's hand lowered so that she could gently run her fingers through his hair and Sheldon smiled in his sleep and turned his head to rest more comfortably on the curvy softness beneath his cheek…_

Sheldon woke up suddenly when his head fell off his pillow and landed with a thump on the flat mattress. He ran a finger through his tousled hair and wondered why he had the scent of apple shampoo in his nostrils. He threw back the covers and let out a startled shriek when he saw the state he had gone to bed in and stumbled out of his bedroom to go in search of some answers.

He made his way down the hallway, leaning on the wall for support and heaved a sigh of relief when he saw Penny and Leonard sharing a pot of coffee at the counter. "Penny, Leonard. I'm feeling as confused as a goat on Astroturf. Would you be able to answer some questions I'm having about the events of last night?"

"Huh?" Penny glanced over and stifled a grin at how dishevelled Sheldon was looking, but not fully understanding his idiom. Leonard leant over to refill her mug and smiled smugly.

"I've got this…What Sheldon means is that he's suffering the effects from last night and can't remember what happened…alcohol does that to him.

"I've got the whistle belly thumps and skull cramps for sure…mind keeping your voices down a little? The two of you sound like two skeletons dancing on a tin roof." Sheldon ran a hand over his pale face and saw Leonard nod in satisfaction.

"Yup, he's hungover all right…he only talks all Texan when he's had a snotful. What do you want to know?"

"Question one, where are my pants?" Sheldon gestured down to where his beautiful suit pants ought to be, and yet his legs were completely bare apart from the black dress socks on his feet. He was still wearing the suit jacket and shirt, although his top few buttons were undone and his tie hung loosely around his neck.

"You might want to check out the latest posting on YouTube." Leonard waved a hand over to Sheldon's desk and the haggard looking man stepped forward, wincing a little as he stepped into the sunlit living room.

"What do I search for?" Sheldon asked as he opened the lid of the laptop and heard Leonard snigger as he made his way over to stand at his side.

"It's already loaded. Just hit play." Sheldon saw his frozen image appear on the screen and swallowed hard as bits and pieces of the previous evening flittered through his mind. He pressed play and watched himself on screen.

"All right, people, let's get down to the math. It is only three dimensional thinking that limits our imagination. Can I take my pants off over my head? Of course not. My body's in the way. But if we had access to higher dimensions, we could move our pants around our bodies through the fourth dimension and our days of dropping trousers would be over." Sheldon hit pause and pressed a hand over his burning eyes, suddenly remembering everything in crystal clarity.

"Oh Dear Lord…How many hits has this thing had?"

"Twelve hundred and counting." Penny remarked chirpily as she walked over with a bottle of water which she pressed into Sheldon's hand. "Here, sweetie…you need to rehydrate yourself."

"Could this be any more humiliating?"

"Uh-huh, keep going and it gets even better."

"No need, I remember it all too vividly." Sheldon shuddered, the purple shadows beneath his red rimmed eyes standing out in stark comparison to his pale skin. Leonard smirked as he reached over to tap on the touch pad and Sheldon was forced to relive the whole experience in glorious Technicolor…

"Now, for the astronomers in the audience, get ready to see the dark side of the moon." There was a rustling noise from behind the lectern and suddenly Sheldon reappeared completely sans pants. As he watched himself reaching for the banding of his briefs on screen, Sheldon pushed back his computer chair and bolted for his bedroom just as his image from last night called out loudly to the banquet guests: "And here's Uranus!"

"Play it again, Leonard!" Penny giggled and slapped at Leonard's shoulder as his fingers reached over to start the video all over again.

"Touch that mouse pad and I swear you won't live long enough to regret it." Sheldon's gravelly warning had Leonard hovering over the pad before retreating back again. Sheldon reappeared wearing his robe fastened over his shirt, having removed his tie and jacket. He leant around Penny and shut down his laptop, closing the lid firmly with a snap. "Leonard, a word in private if you will?"

"Sure…Penny why don't you head on over to your place and get dressed? I'll catch up with you in a few minutes." Leonard leant over to place a quick kiss on his girlfriend's lips and she nodded.

"Okay sweetie…" Penny reached up to pat Leonard's cheek in understanding, and taking her cup of coffee with her left their apartment to walk over the landing to her own place. Once she had gone, Sheldon slumped down into his office chair and raked his fingers through his hair.

"It's far worse than I had imagined, Leonard."

"How so? I mean, it was already pretty bad." Leonard dragged his computer chair over and propped his chin in his hand as he waited for Sheldon to explain.

"She was there, Leonard." Sheldon had come up with a pretty good story while he was throwing on his robe and he was sure that his roommate would take the bait. "There was a voicemail left on my cell last night during the ceremony."

"That's great! It means she knows who you are right? I mean, she called your private cell!" Leonard leant forward in excitement and Sheldon nodded.

"Indeed…but I am no further forward in finding out who she is at all. She called from a private number so I don't have her call back details and she didn't leave her contact information. She just said that she'd seen my unfortunate speech and although she congratulated me on winning the award…well, I think we can all agree that it wasn't my finest moment." Sheldon wasn't exactly lying to Leonard, bits and pieces of his conversation with dream Amy were coming back to him slowly and that was pretty much what she had inferred. "She was there accepting an award of her own last night, going up on stage just after dessert had been completed."

"So we just go online and find out who exactly was on the award list last night and use that to narrow down the parameters…how many 'Amy's' could there have been at that thing anyway?"

"The only problem is that it was her team that were the recipients of the award, not Amy personally. Did you know that there were over two hundred individual Chancellor Awards given out over the last two weeks? Not everyone would have been present at the banquet and over one hundred and fifty of said awards were presented to organisations, charity groups and large research teams." Sheldon recited the information he had pulled together as part of the pack he was preparing to send over to his Meemaw for his scrapbook, and Leonard gave a little murmur of distress as thought about how much paperwork the search could potentially generate.

"One hundred fifty organisations?" Leonard parroted back and Sheldon gave him a weary grin as he nodded tiredly.

"Yup and some of those have nearly a hundred individuals listed under them."

"I think we've at least found one of our search parameters for Howard's programme. We know that Amy's a neurobiologist that was on a team that was recognised at the banquet last night. We add that to the information that we've already got and see what data it comes back with." Leonard scribbled himself a note as a reminder and looked over to see Sheldon looking completely miserable as he hunched over his computer desk. "Buddy, why don't you hit the shower and then head back to bed for a few hours? We've both got today booked off, I'll start a quick search on the internet using what we know so far and see what we come up with."

"Don't you have plans with Penny later?" Sheldon cranked open an eye to peer blearily at his friend and Leonard checked his watch.

"I said I'd take her out to breakfast before she heads to work. She's got the lunchtime shift today, so I can be back here by eleven and get in a good couple of hours before the guys arrive with dinner." Sheldon thought about it for a few seconds before rubbing his tired eyes and nodding in acceptance.

"Okay…I think I'll get my nap before taking a shower, most accidents that occur in the bathroom are due to negligence and I'm too tired to perform my safety check in an adequate fashion. Please lock the door securely on your way out, Leonard."

"You got it…have a nice nap and I'll see you in a few hours." Leonard picked up his jacket and followed Sheldon's instructions to the letter as the weary physicist shuffled back off to bed.


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: A nice, long chapter to end the weekend with! I've used a little poetic licence with this chapter, keeping Penny and Leonard a couple and deciding that Sheldon's Chancellor Award was one of many given out that evening. I have absolutely no idea whether anything to do with the computer searches referenced in this chapter is even remotely accurate...so feel free to ignore the glaring errors and enjoy it for the entertainment value only...**

"This is impossible!" Leonard threw up his hands in disgust as the computer programme that Howard's friend had provided, spewed out yet another stream of complete gibberish. "It's completely useless and we'd have been better off sticking with Google."

"What's it saying now?" Sheldon looked up from where he was still trawling through the five thousand odd individual recipients from the Chancellor's Awards, cross referencing them against his colour coded database.

"No match found." Leonard jabbed a finger on the return key impatiently and cursed under his breath. "I know that there should be at least six thousand names coming up because I entered a fairly loose parameter…the 2010 Chancellor's Award recipients."

"Hmm…very strange, you'd have thought that you'd have got the same answers as we got from the official website." Sheldon left his papers strewn over the floor and leant over Leonard's shoulder to study the lines of code that had been written for the programme. "No, sorry…can't make head nor tail of it; it looks partly like a Python code but there's something mixed in there that I just can't recognise."

"Do you think we should ask Howard to lend a hand? I mean, he writes code every day for his robots; maybe he can see something that we just can't." Leonard looked over at his roommate, who was growing more and more frustrated as the weeks went on. "Sheldon, we've been spending every minute of our free time on this for the last six weeks! I haven't had a date night with Penny in so long that I'm not even sure that we're still dating! I'm running out of excuses to give her and the guys know something's going on…we haven't been to paintball since the end of March."

"Has it been that long?" Sheldon asked in amazement and then sighed as he looked down at the mess on the living room floor. "I guess it couldn't hurt to ask Howard to cast his eye over the code that you've already written…we could tell him that we're using it as a practise run for when we write our own code. No details though, I don't want to have to face his smug expression or listen to any sarcastic comments he makes…I can just hear him now; 'Ooh Sheldon, Pinocchio's finally turned into a real boy.'" Sheldon mimicked Howard's tone so accurately that Leonard could almost believe that the diminutive engineer was actually in the room with them.

"No details, I promise. Let me give him a call and see whether he's free tonight." Leonard pulled out his cell and scrolled through his contact list until he found Howard's number. "I take it you haven't heard from Amy since the banquet?" He asked as he waited for Howard to pick up and Sheldon shook his head before turning away to pick up the scattered papers.

Sheldon hadn't dreamt of Amy at all since that night, in fact he hadn't dreamt at all or if he had he wasn't remembering them. He had spent many a night trying to meditate into a relaxed state so that she would appear, but nothing seemed to work. He had even contemplated consuming copious amounts of alcohol in an attempt to relieve the night of the banquet but stopped himself from stooping to that level.

"Sheldon?" Leonard's patient tone had Sheldon looking over his shoulder at his roommate and from the look on Leonard's face it wasn't the first time he had called his name. "Howard's gonna drop his Mom off at home after her water aerobics class and then head over; he should be here by eight thirty."

"Okay." Sheldon replied quietly and concentrated on stacking each individual piece of paper neatly on top of the first, tamping the edges so that everything lined up correctly. Leonard watched his friend's almost robotic movements and hoped that this whole mess would be sorted out quickly. He'd heard Sheldon walking around the apartment in the early hours of the morning when he couldn't sleep and he wouldn't be a bit surprised if Gablehauser called his roommate into a meeting one day soon to discuss Sheldon's complete lack of focus at work.

"How about we watch a little TV until Howard gets here?" Leonard suggested as soon as Sheldon had finished picking up the print outs and set them neatly on his desk. "Oh look your favourite DS9 episode is about to start! You love the one with the Tribbles."

"You can watch it if you like, I'm not really in the mood." Sheldon sat down in his spot and lowered his gaze to his hands, fingers twisting nervously in his lap as he checked the time on his wristwatch. When Leonard caught him checking the time again after just a few seconds, he aimed the remote at the TV and muted the sound.

"Why don't you tell me a little more about Amy while we wait for Howard?"

"I don't really have anything else to add apart from the facts that I've already given you; she's a graduate of Harvard, working as a neurobiologist somewhere in California and her name is Amy." Sheldon ticked the details off his fingers one by one and Leonard leant forward in the armchair.

"Yeah, I got all of that…but why don't you tell me a little bit more about **her**? What's her favourite colour, what kind of laugh does she have? What's her likes and dislikes?"

"Oh. You mean the touchy feely stuff?" Sheldon pursed his lips as he thought about Leonard's questions, leaning back against the rear cushions and sliding down a little in his seat. He smiled faintly as he hugged a cushion to his chest. "Her favourite colour is pink; not the vivid pink that Penny favours but the softer hue like the inside of a seashell. She doesn't wear it very often as she prefers to wear more striking colours as part of her work wardrobe, she keeps the pastels for when she's at home." Leonard smiled at Sheldon's poetic turn of phrase and propped his arm on the side of the chair as he waited for Sheldon to continue.

"She's fond of music; she has a full sized Harp at home and likes the soft, sappy music that you hear in those movies that Raj likes to watch when he thinks no one cares about him. Amy has two laughs; a polite chuckle for when she doesn't think something is particularly funny but laughs because everyone else is…and the other is quiet and husky, as it makes her eyes glow like sparkling jewels; that's the laugh you want to hear because that's when she really comes alive." Sheldon found himself smiling as he thought about what Amy looked like when she really smiled; her skin would glow as if it were coated in fairy dust and she never looked more beautiful. "She prefers to watch romantic period drama's over crime or thrillers and positively refuses to watch horror movies in case it sets off her night terrors. She loves watching monkeys at the zoo, and it's often difficult to persuade her to move onto another exhibit if they are being particularly playful. Um…she's an only child to a single mother; her father having passed away when she was very young, Amy has very little memory of him being around as he was a surgeon in the Army and was killed in action. Her mother doesn't like to speak about him so Amy has had to rely on anecdotes passed on from her mother's aunt Flora and they are sketchy at best as they moved around a lot when she was growing up."

"Sounds like you know a lot more about her than you first thought." Leonard said quietly and Sheldon nodded briefly.

"None of which is going to be at all useful at narrowing down our search."

"I don't know…she might have something in her work bio about having a father in the Army. We'll see what Howard comes up with and maybe we can add that as a secondary parameter once we've narrowed the field a little." They both looked up as there was a brief tap on the door before Howard opened it up and entered the living room.

"So, what sort of problem are you having with the programme?"

"It's not returning any usable data at all…that's the problem." Leonard pulled up the results from his most recent search and tapped on the blank area of the screen. "We know that we should be seeing a whole list of names in that field, but it's completely empty and we can't figure out why."

"How do you know there should be any results displayed?" Howard nudged Leonard out of the way and opened up the background coding, scanning over the code looking for errors.

"Because we asked it to look for something we already had the answer to, kind of like a test to see if it really worked. There should have been a couple of thousand names on that list and there's not a single one returned."

"Hmm…I can't see anything obvious, let me give my friend a call and see if he knows what the problem might be." Howard pulled his phone out and dialled up his friend in the State Department. "Timmy? It's Howard…yeah, that's what I'm calling about. It doesn't appear to be working…Uh-huh, at all." Howard propped his phone between his shoulder and his ear so that he had both hands free to use the keyboard. "Yeah, I'm in the coding now…Uh-huh…oh really? Yeah, that's kinda interesting…yup, making the change now." Howard glanced over when Leonard thrust a piece of paper under his nose, and tapped the message scrawled on the pad. "One last question, how do I add secondary parameters once the initial search has completed?" Howard gestured for the pen and Leonard passed it over, the engineer scrawling data on the sheet and nodding as he listened to his friend's instructions. "Okay, got it…Thanks, Timmy." Howard set the phone carefully on the desk and swivelled in his chair as he folded his arm across his chest. "Someone care to fill me in on why the State Department's computers are churning out lists of individuals that received a Chancellor's Award this year? Yeah, that's right…you forgot the one thing I told you to do! Change the first frigging line of code to your own IP address!" Howard yelled as he waved his arm in the air. "Tim's had to hack into his own system to erase all of the searches the two of you have run over the last five weeks…" Howard looked down at the notes he had scribbled on the notepad. "Chancellor's Award, Neurobiologists working in California, Graduates from Harvard Medical from 1990 through to 2004…need I go on?"

"Okay, Howard I get it…we messed up." Leonard ran his hand through his hair and sat down in Sheldon's desk chair. "Is it fixed now?"

"Not yet, I've got to change a few pieces of coding so that nothing gets traced back to here…Tim's also given me some additional code so that it's easier for you to add multiple parameters without having to run a search every time you want to add another layer."

"You mean that we could list everything we want it to search for and it will do it in one go?" Sheldon asked reverently, a spark of hope brightening his eyes for the first time in almost a month, and Leonard looked over at Howard for confirmation.

"If Tim's as good as his pay cheque says he is…then yeah, it should just be a matter of entering your search references and hitting the go button. I could get it all set up for you now if you tell me what you're looking for." Howard muttered without looking up from the screen, and missed the questioning glance that Leonard gave Sheldon.

"You'd need to sign a complete non-disclosure agreement before we'll give you any information." Howard looked up in amazement, he never thought he'd hear those words spilling out of Leonard's mouth rather than Sheldon's but it was Leonard looking like he was about to reveal the location of the Holy Grail whereas Sheldon just twitched nervously as he sat in his spot.

"Really? You seriously want me to sign a non-disclosure agreement for something that anyone with a computer can look up on any search engine? You've really been spending too much time with the Shelbot, Leonard."

"We're asking for something a bit more sensitive than what you'd find on a search engine, Howard; if you're not willing to sign the papers just set up the blank parameters and I'll do the rest myself." Howard's natural level of curiosity rose up a notch when Leonard didn't even crack a smile and he shifted away from the desk and held out his hand.

"Fine. I'll sign the darned papers if that's what you want."

"Sheldon?" Leonard glanced over to Sheldon who pointed a finger at the second drawer of his desk. Leonard reached over to pull out a manila folder, sifting through the various documents until he found the one with Howard's details.

"You have pre-written agreements stored away just in case? Man, you guys really have been spending way too much time together lately." Howard glanced over and saw both Raj and Penny's name on some of the papers, along with a copy that already had Leonard's signature scrawled along the bottom.

"Do you want to be part of this or not?" Leonard held the paper just out of reach and frowned over at Howard. "This is serious stuff, Howard…if you want to walk away, now would be the time." Howard snatched the paper out of Leonard's grasp and scratched his signature next to his name.

"You really ought to read things before you sign, Howard. How do you know you haven't just signed away your entire comic-book collection over to Leonard and myself?" Sheldon's mocking tone had Howard narrowing his eyes over at his friend.

"Some things just shouldn't be joked about, Sheldon."

"Of course." Sheldon lowered his head a little. "I apologise, but next time please at least pretend to read what you're signing? Others may not be as trustworthy as you may think."

"So, what have I signed up for? A little espionage on our friends in the cold? Tracking results in Geneva?" Howard rubbed his hand together in eager anticipation and saw Sheldon exchange a pleading glance with Leonard. "Oh Dear Lord, you've split up with Penny and are trying to find the woman you had a one night stand with after the Award banquet."

"Close but no cigar." Leonard quipped and pulled over Sheldon's stack of print outs from his months of fruitless searching. "Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to narrow down the results of Sheldon's original search…which resulted in how many, buddy?"

"Fifteen thousand, six hundred and forty three."

"Yeah, what he said." Leonard turned his attention back to Howard who was staring at his two friends like they had grown extra limbs.

"That's what the two of you have been doing all of these weeks? Combing through fifteen thousand names in search of some random biologist?"

"Of course not, I narrowed it down to a little over twelve thousand." Sheldon clucked his tongue and shook his head. "Now we'd like to see if your programme could narrow it down a little further by cross referencing my list against those who received an Award on the same night that I did."

"I need to know exactly what I am supposed to be searching for…I've got a little from the list that Tim gave me but I'd like to know why I'm doing this." Howard paused with his fingers hovering over the keyboard and just caught the smug expressions that were reflected on his friend's faces.

"Sorry, buddy…but I guess you should have read that paperwork a little closer. This is on a strictly need to know basis…just enter the same references that Tim gave you and we'll sift through those names and let you know if we need anything more." Leonard chuckled under his breath as he caught the muffled curses spilling from Howard's mouth as he crossed the living room to take a seat on the couch next to Sheldon, both of them sitting in identical poses with their legs propped up on the coffee table and their arms folded across their chest. "How long is the search going to take, Howard?"

"No idea…it depends on how many results it will find. It might help if we could narrow it down by sex or even a name?"

"What do you think, Sheldon?" Leonard leant over to murmur in Sheldon's ear and when Sheldon gave a slight nod, Leonard glanced over at Howard. "Female and try the first name of Amy."

"It just had to involve a woman didn't it? I might have known." Howard gave them both a smug look before he turned back to the laptop and adjusted the parameters; hearing the slight growl emanating from the couch. "Come on, it was just a joke…"

"Do you see us laughing, Wolowitz?" That low almost menacing tone almost certainly held a note of a southern drawl and Howard glanced over his shoulder to see Sheldon's azure gaze turn almost icy as he glared over at him. Howard shivered a little and quickly turned back to the keyboard, pressing the enter key with a small flourish.

"There…we should see some results appearing fairly shortly."

"Feel free to leave at any time." Leonard said with a faint smile, and Howard shook his head.

"I'd rather stay and make sure that we don't have a repeat of the last time, if that's alright with you, Sheldon?" The taller man shrugged as he left his seat to wander over to the laptop, hovering by Howard's shoulder as he watched the empty results pane anxiously. "It could take a while…Tim didn't say how long it took the first time his team ran the search."

"No rush…We've waited a long time already, we can wait a little longer." Sheldon's left eye began to twitch and Howard lept up from his chair and jabbed a finger at Sheldon's chest.

"Hah! I knew you were lying to me Sheldon! That twitch in your eye just proved it for sure."

"Dang it! Foiled by my own nervous system." Sheldon pressed a finger against his eye, and felt the jerk beneath his skin. "I guess the cat's well and truly out of the bag now."

"Tell me who we're looking for and I can adjust the search accordingly, please?"

"It's okay buddy, Howard won't say anything stupid." Leonard promised and narrowed his eyes in warning. "Will you, Howard?"

"Who am I gonna tell? You made me sign a non-disclosure agreement that you stamped as a notary!"

"We're looking for a woman that I've been searching for my whole life. All of the details that I've pieced together over the years are in the folder in the top drawer of my desk. Please put it back once you've finished with it." Sheldon retrieved the folder from his locked drawer and set it down in front of Howard, leaving his hand in place over the top until Howard glanced up in confusion. "Remember Howard, you are one stupid comment away from being completely banned from my apartment and a social pariah…"

"Jeez, Sheldon you make it sound so tempting…"

"Howard…" Leonard's impatient tone warned Howard that it was probably not a good time to make lame jokes and he held his hands up in supplication.

"Okay…enough with the attitude, I promise. Just let me read what you've put together and let me see what I have to work with." Sheldon removed his hand and wiped it down the front of his pants, giving Howard a jerky nod as he made his way back over to the couch. Leonard nudged his shoulder and silently asked whether he was okay and Sheldon mustered up a half smile in return. "Well, we've got some results from the original search…but it's still too many names."

"How many?"

"Nine thousand, three hundred and four. Let me add in the fact that we're now searching for a woman with the first name of 'Amy' or 'Amelia' and see what that gives us." Howard entered the further parameters and clicked on the return key. "Whoa. That was fast…we're now down to five hundred and three. What next?"

"What have we searched for so far?" Leonard wandered over to peer over Howard's shoulder and ran his finger over the screen. "Calfornia; recipient of Chancellor Award, female, Amy…You forgot neurobiologist!"

"Oops." Howard pulled up the code and made a few tweaks, a few seconds later they blinked at the results on the screen. "Fifty five."

"Can you narrow it down to those who specialise in addiction studies?" Sheldon joined the two men as they watched the lines of code scroll across the screen. "Thirty two." Sheldon racked his brains for something that might help pinpoint Amy's exact identity. "Will it search for their home addresses or anything like that?"

"Only if they've entered that information onto a bio or social media."

"Amy mentioned something about how we lived in fairly close proximity. Could you add a parameter to search for those living within thirty miles of Pasadena?"

"Okay, searching now." Howard watched the numbers flicker on the screen and held his breath. "Twelve. There are twelve Amy's living within Pasadena that are fit any of your specified parameters. That's not saying that your particular Amy is definitely among these women, don't forget the internet is only as reliable as the information fed into it. Perhaps your Amy isn't a fan of plastering her every move on her Facebook pages or doesn't like social recognition…there are so many variables to consider, I don't want you to be disappointed if we don't find her straight away. I've sent the file to your e-mail account Sheldon, hopefully you can find some pictures within their data and that will help you at least find out her full name."

"Thank you, Howard." Sheldon smiled his first real smile in weeks and picked up his laptop from his desk to carry it over to the couch. He opened up his e-mail account and selected the file in question, skimming through the attachment until his eyes widened in horror. "Wolowitz! There are hundreds of pages of data to search through! I thought it would just show up the twelve names?"

"I told you, this is just the prototype programme. It might have returned twelve names but you're gonna have to read through every line of those pages until you find them. Listen, I've gotta go before Ma sends out a search party for me. Why don't talk over lunch tomorrow? Maybe we can all take a few hundred pages each and highlight the possibilities for you, it might be worth bringing Raj, Stuart and Penny in on your scheme; the more eyes the better."

"Hmm, I'll think about it. Let me read through a few pages of this tonight and I'll let you know tomorrow." Sheldon barely glanced up from his laptop as Howard let himself out, his expression growing more and more concerned the further he got into the document. "This is worse than I thought…Look Leonard…"Sheldon tilted his screen so that Leonard could see what he was reading. "It's highlighted every single word in the separate parameters…Here's California…and Pasadena…primate…it goes on and on…Where are the names?"

"Let's just put it aside for tonight, it's getting late and we've both got work in the morning. Let's print it out at work and do what Howard suggests; we can use a highlighter for each parameter and then see which section contains all of the colours." Leonard gently closed the lid of Sheldon's laptop and removed it from his clutching grasp; gently steering his friend out of the living room and toward the bedrooms. "We've got it down to twelve names, that's a lot less than we had yesterday."

"Yes, but it could still take months before we even find those names."

"It's taken you nearly twenty years to get this far, what's another few months?" Leonard asked quietly and Sheldon nodded.

"I guess you're right…Good night, Leonard and thank you for your help. I'm sorry that I've kept you away from Penny for so long, I honestly didn't realise that we'd be spending this much time focusing on my needs."

"That's okay, buddy. It's only made us appreciate the time that we do get to spend together. If we bring her in on the search, I'll be spending even more evenings with her than if we were dating normally, so it's good all round." Leonard smiled happily at his roommate as they both headed into their separate bedrooms; Leonard dreaming up ways to make things right with his girlfriend, while Sheldon slipped into another restless sleep, his dreams remaining just out of reach as they had been for the last five weeks.


	11. Chapter 11

Penny was just finishing her lunchtime shift at The Cheesecake Factory when her phone buzzed in her pocket alerting her to the fact that she had received a new text message.

**Group meeting at our place tonight, Sheldon's paying for dinner 7pm L**

"Ooh, Sheldon's buying? I'm so gonna be there for that!" Penny fired off a quick reply and slid her phone back into her pocket, completing her shift handover with a brilliant smile on her face.

Raj, Howard and Stuart all received similar texts; Stuart wondered briefly whether he had been sent it in error and then accepted with a shrug. He was sick to death of eating canned ravioli every night and a free meal was a welcome change. He placed a call to his Aunt Verna's house and within a few minutes had arranged for his cousin, Dale to come in and cover the last few hours at the store.

"Okay, Sheldon…what natural disaster has occurred that requires a mandatory attendance meeting?" Raj strolled into Sheldon's apartment a little before seven that evening, his hands tucked into his pants pockets. He paused as he saw the six large whiteboards propped up in the middle of the living room and the stacks of bound papers neatly arranged on the coffee table next to six packages of highlighter pens.

"No natural disaster, Raj." Leonard called out as he placed a plastic crate of whiteboard markers on the arm of the couch. "We'll fill everyone in when we're all here." Leonard glanced around the living room and scratched the side of his head as he tried to think of anything else they might need. "Oh, notepads!" He ran over to the kitchen counter and grabbed a shopping bag, bringing it across to the living room and pulling out a stack of yellow pads and placing them in the middle of the table.

"Not Pictionary again!" Penny's groan of dismay from the doorway announced her presence, "You know for a person that is a supposed genius, Sheldon's sucks at board games."

"Relax, Penny. We're not playing Pictionary tonight." Leonard wandered over to kiss his girlfriend hello, and then Penny crossed over to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water from the fridge. She passed a bottle of low alcohol beer over to Raj who popped the cap off and took a deep swallow.

"Ah, thank you Penny." Raj said with a slight nod of his head and Penny placed a gentle hand on his arm.  
"No problem, sweetie. Once upon a time it would have taken you the whole bottle before you could say hello; now it's just one sip."

"One sip, that's practically half the bottle." Howard bounded into the apartment, carrying a stack of pizza boxes in his arms. "That's forty three twenty five, Sheldon. I got Pepperoni, triple cheese, sausage and mushroom and a bag of garlic dough balls. Stuart's got salad and onion rings; he's just taking a call from Dale out in the hallway."

"Oh Dear Lord! He left him in charge of the store again? Don't you remember what happened last time? He got the 'Silver Age' issues mixed in with the 'Batman Chronicles'!" Sheldon was walking back into the living room when Howard arrived, and he now had a look of mild panic on his face. Howard snapped his fingers together to get Sheldon's attention.

"Don't worry, Sheldon; it's Tuesday night, the deliveries don't arrive until tomorrow and when I picked Stuart up from the store Captain Sweatpants was already giving Dale a hand. All he's really got to do is ring up any sales that come in and Stuart will cash up when he gets back." Howard saw the rigid frame of Sheldon's shoulders relax a little as he finished speaking and the other man gave him a faint smile as he sat down on the couch.

"Good, at least we have one less thing to worry about. Ah, that must be Stuart…" Sheldon glanced up as there was a hesitant tap on the door and then Stuart nervously edged his way into the living room.

"I wasn't sure at first whether you had sent me that text in error; I mean you don't normally invite me over for dinner at your apartment." Stuart hovered near the door and Leonard gave him a warm smile of welcome.

"We should've done it a lot sooner, come on in and grab yourself some pizza. Sheldon, do you want to let everyone know why they're here?"

"Not just yet, let's enjoy our meal first. There will be plenty of time to chat a little later." Sheldon selected a slice of the sausage pizza and placed it on a paper plate, before grabbing a handful of napkins to avoid any mess.

"Ooh a mystery!" Raj grinned as he grabbed several slices of the pizza and started munching. "My spidey senses are all tingly in anticipation!"

"Come on Sheldon, don't leave us hanging like that; what's going on?" Penny nibbled on a piece of the cheese pizza and leant forward in the armchair. "You finally make a breakthrough in your research and want us to proof read your paper or something?"

"Heh, good one Penny." Sheldon let out a breathy chuckle and shook his head in amusement. "You never cease to amaze me sometimes…as if you would be able to understand my data."

"Hey! I can spell you know…It might do you good to have a non sciency person read your stuff every once in a while." Penny gave Sheldon a hurt look and he patted her arm.

"There, there…don't get your britches in a twist. This has nothing to do with my research in the slightest." Sheldon set his unfinished meal down on the coffee table and wiped his hands with a napkin. "As it appears that you are all incurably impatient, I guess I can fill you in on a little bit. On the table you will see six stacks of papers, each stack has a letter in the top right corner and I will give you a piece of paper with a keyword. What I would like is for each of us to look through the papers and use a coloured highlighter every time you see that particular word written within the text; using a five bar gate system you will make a note of how many times the word appears in your stack. When you have finished your stack, I'd like you to pass it along to the next person who will repeat the process looking for the word on their card and so on…"

"So, you want us to use a different colour pen for each word?" Stuart asked and Sheldon nodded.

"Yes, every word gets a different colour and a separate tally; I will record the results on the whiteboard and hopefully be able to find what I am looking for. There is one catch…all of you will have to sign a non-disclosure agreement and promise not to comment, disparage or gossip about what you find. Leonard, if you wouldn't mind?" Sheldon glanced over at Leonard, who had already pulled the file out from the desk and was handing the forms over to Penny, Raj and Stuart.

"Why doesn't Howard have to sign one of these?" Penny noticed that Howard was continuing to eat his pizza and he looked up with a grin.

"Already done, m'lady."

"How long is this gonna take?" Raj asked as he handed back his form to Leonard, who slipped it back into the wallet. "I've got an early session booked on the telescope tomorrow and I was hoping to get an early night."

"What we don't get finished this evening, I can pick up tomorrow; I've booked a few days off work."

"Wow, I guess this must be really important to you huh?" Penny whistled between her teeth as she scrawled her loopy signature across the bottom of the agreement. "I can't remember you voluntarily taking a day off unless it was a movie premiere or one of your Star Wars memorial days."

"Extremely important." Sheldon said quietly as he leant forward to neaten up one of the stacks of papers. "I wouldn't have asked the rest of you to help if it wasn't the case." Penny noticed Leonard rubbing Sheldon's shoulder comfortingly and the way Sheldon looked back at his roommate, even Howard seemed to be a little quieter than usual.

"Let's get started then, I'll clear away these boxes so that we have room to work." Penny started stacking up the pizza boxes and salad cartons, moving them over to the kitchen counter so that anyone could grab another slice if they were still hungry. She spritzed a little cleanser on a piece of kitchen towel and ran it over the coffee table to make sure that no stray droplets of sauce would mar the paperwork.

"Alright then. Everyone grab a stack of papers and a coloured highlighter and let's get to work. Penny, your papers are marked 'A' so please use that on your five bar gate ie. A = 5, Raj, you've got B, Howard C, Stuart D, I'm E and Sheldon's F; when we swap Penny will start a new tally looking for her word on the next batch of papers." Leonard handed out the notecards with the keyword written on it and Sheldon crossed over to the whiteboard.

"Penny, what is your keyword and what colour highlighter have you chosen?"

"Um…Harvard and pink." Penny watched as Sheldon selected a vivid pink marker from the box and wrote her keyword across the top of the first whiteboard.

"Raj?"

"Neurobiology and yellow." Again Sheldon selected the corresponding marker from the box and wrote the keyword across the second whiteboard.

"Howard?"

"Primate Addiction and I'm gonna go for green." Sheldon nodded and set up the third as Stuart called out his word, which was Chancellor's Award and his colour choice of blue, Leonard just said 'name' and selected orange and Sheldon had the more challenging task of skimming the papers for any town within a twenty five mile radius of Pasadena and the black marker. Only Howard, Leonard and he knew the full details of the search and Sheldon wanted to keep it that way for a little while longer. The group bent their heads over their papers and soon there were little colourful bands appearing on the search results as they worked their way through their papers.

"Leonard, there twenty five cities, towns or suburbs within the twenty five mile radius of Pasadena; this could take a while." Sheldon murmured as he checked his list, Leonard looked up from his own stack and peered over Sheldon's shoulder.

"Yeah, but once we've narrowed it down to those within say a twenty minute car ride to one of the universities…"

"Hmm…yes, that could work." Sheldon pursed his lips thoughtfully and started cherry picking towns from his list, concentrating on those within a reasonable driving distance from either UCLA or CalTech.

"Okay…I've got thirty nine hits on mine." Raj stated as he waved his tally sheet in the air. Sheldon set his papers aside and crossed over to mark Raj's findings under Neurobiology.

"Sixty four for mine." Stuart called out and Sheldon noted that one the board.

"Okay, the two of you swap papers and we'll see if we get any closer." Sheldon waved his finger between Stuart and Raj and they swapped their stacks, bending back down to pick up their highlighters.

"I've only got ten." Penny said mournfully as she finished reading the last page, and Leonard looked up interestedly.

"That's a good thing, Penny."

"It is?" Penny perked up at the news, and Leonard nodded.

"Yeah, if everyone else finds their words within your highlighted section then it narrows down the field even more. Good job!" Sheldon scribbled Penny's total on her whiteboard and turned around to face her.

"No one else has finished their section yet, so you'll just have to wait a while until either Howard or Leonard finishes up searching for their word."

"I'm done, seventy four for me." Howard capped his highlighter and Sheldon looked over in surprise.

"Really, that many? I thought for sure that one would have been our secret weapon."

"Yeah, either one person has racked up a lot of web chat or there's a lot more people studying primate addiction than we first thought."

"Hmm…" Sheldon frowned a little as he entered Howard's totals on the board and then waved over at him. "You two go ahead and switch over. Leonard, how are you doing?"

"Not as good as Penny but a little better than Howard; thirty eight so far, but I've still got another four pages to go."

"Okay, so far I've got ten for Glendale, six for Pasadena and another thirteen that just state Los Angeles." Sheldon turned back to his stack and picked up his pen again. "This is going to be a lot harder than I first thought; a lot of this stuff seems to be social media feeds."

"Yeah, I've seen a lot of that as well." Howard tapped his current set of papers and looked up. "It always amazes me how some people like to put every little detail of their life on the internet. Listen to this one, it's a Facebook feed…" Howard selected a passage that he had just finished reading; "Thank goodness that's over for another year! Just got back from the annual banquet and some of the team once again managed to get themselves lost on the way back from the party…a little too much alcohol and not enough food in their system. Some very funny speeches again this year and we were even treated to a little song…Here's hoping that the capuchins are extra noisy in the morning!"

"Hmm…interesting; does the feed have a date stamp on it?" Sheldon asked as he tapped his pen against his bottom lip.

"March, why?"

"The person could be referring to the Chancellor's award banquet and the little song could relate to my own unfortunate speech…Capuchins are a small primate."

"Yeah, I'll circle it just in case." Howard nodded and scrawled a large circle around the passage and continued to read.

A few hours later and things were looking more promising, Penny had finished checking five out of the six stacks of papers, as had Raj. Stuart had left a short time ago to check on Dale and cash up, promising to call back in as soon as the store was securely locked up for the night.

"That's it…I'm done. Twelve on that final section." Raj yawned as he made the final highlight and pushed his papers to the side. "As much as I would love to see what all of this means, I'm going to have to get some sleep. My telescope slot is in five hours and I still have to make my final calculations."

"Thank you for your assistance, Raj." Sheldon rose up to enter Raj's final tally and stacked the papers carefully on top of Penny's completed pile.

"No problem, see you tomorrow at the comic-book store?"

"I'm not sure, it depends how well the rest of this goes." Sheldon tapped the pages and Raj nodded as he collected his jacket from where it was flung over the back of Leonard's desk chair.

"Goodnight then."

"Yeah, night Raj." Leonard waved over from where he was checking the last few pages of Sheldon's original stack. "Five."

"Really? Just five?"

"Yup, that's all." Leonard neatened up the edges of his pile and glanced over at Howard who was skimming through the last of the stacks. "Howard, what about you?"

"Twelve." Howard checked his tally sheet to confirm and looked up with a grin. "I think we're getting there. If Leonard's only got five that match Sheldon's location then we're almost certainly looking at five definite possibilities. We just need to see if anyone else's colours are also in those particular sections."

"I've only checked five stacks, what's the last one?" Penny checked her notepad and Leonard rifled through the stacks to find the one that Penny hadn't checked.

"This one, it's the one that Sheldon had so it took him a little longer."

"Okay, I'll check it now and then they're all done." Penny uncapped her pen and started running her finger over the paragraphs. "Hmm…nothing so far."

"That's good…keep going." Leonard glanced over at Sheldon who was nervously biting his lip as Penny kept reading.

"Ooh, there's one!" Penny highlighted one section and looked up with a grin. "It's got blue, green and yellow, but no black…but that might be because there isn't a location mentioned in the article." Penny bent over the pages again as Sheldon skimmed through the rest of the stacks looking for where the most colours were found. A few minutes later, Penny looked up with a grin. "Four…and most of those were next to sections already highlighted."

"Howard, warm up the search engine if you will." Sheldon grabbed the stack from Penny and compared it to the last stack that Leonard had checked. "Please search for the following names; Amelia Marie Burton, Amie Elliott, Amy Johnson-Shaw, Amelie Elisa Martins and Amy Farrah Fowler; see if you can find a picture or more information."

"Okay…here's the first one now; Amy Johnson-Shaw, graduated Harvard Medical School in 2001 with a degree in Neuroscience, went on to join a research team in San Francisco in 2003…Oh, it's a picture of her wedding to a Daniel Shaw in 2006." Howard swivelled the screen and Sheldon glanced at the image, shaking his head.

"Not her." Leonard picked up a pen and scrawled a large black cross over her details and nudged a stack across for Penny to do the same.

"Alrighty…Amelia Marie Burton…graduated Harvard in 2003, went straight into working at a private laboratory in LA…no photos but she did receive a Chancellor's Award at this year's banquet." Howard looked up at Sheldon with an encouraging smile and Sheldon glanced over at Leonard.

"Put that one down as a possibility, Leonard. Go on Howard."

"Next up Amelie Elisa Martins, graduated Harvard in 2004 with a doctorate in Neurobiology, received the Chancellor's Award this year…oh." Howard's tone grew softer as he swivelled around in his chair, "Sheldon, this one is taken from a piece in the Monrovia Daily…a few days after receiving the award, Amelie was involved in a head on collision and she didn't make it."

Sheldon's face paled at the news, he didn't even want to consider whether that was why he hadn't seen Amy in his dreams since the night of the banquet. He felt Leonard press his arm against his side and drew strength from his comforting presence.

"Show me the picture."


	12. Chapter 12

Sheldon sucked in a painful breath as Howard turned the laptop around so that he could see the smiling face of the young woman. For a split second, Sheldon's whole world was shattered and he felt his knees turn to jelly. Leonard grabbed his arm to support him and Sheldon blinked quickly as he looked at the picture in more detail.

"It's close, but it's not her." He shook his head slowly and patted Leonard's hand where it was still wrapped around his arm. "Amy has green eyes not brown and her glasses are more rectangular than that."

"Okay, buddy we'll cross her off the list."

"Howard, what have you got on the last two?"

"Not much, both graduated in 2004 with a doctorate in Neurobiology; one works out of UCLA and the other at a research lab in LA; neither one has a photo posted…but the interesting thing is they are both on 'Smart Single's'."

"What's that?" Penny walked over to peer over Howard's shoulder and he pulled up a new tab.

"Smart Singles is a dating site created for especially for those looking for someone on a similar IQ level.

"Pure hokum." Sheldon snorted and Penny looked over at him in wry amusement. "It's just an algorithm that works based on the answers you give; poppycock the lot of it."

"Interesting…" Howard muttered quietly as he tapped out a few strings of code, "It seems as if your third mystery guest is also on the same dating site." Howard glanced over at Sheldon and raised his eyebrow. "How about it Sheldon? Fancy throwing yourself in the ring with these three lovely ladies? We could arrange for you to meet all three of them."  
"Together?"

"Of course not, but we could have you meet them all in the same day; maybe a couple of hours apart? Say one at the coffee shop, the next in the park and the last back at the coffee shop."

"Hmm…any pictures on their profiles?" Leonard crossed over to wrap his arms around Penny's waist and leaning his chin on her shoulder as he gazed at the laptop.

"No, they say that this is a site for like-minded people and that physical appearance shouldn't matter."

"What it they are horrible people and I don't want to stay?" Sheldon twitched a little as he thought about having to spend hours with a woman that he had nothing in common with.

"How about we arrange for all three 'date's' to be at the coffee shop; you make it clear on the invitation that it is a meet and greet coffee date and maybe one of us can come with you to create a diversion if we think things are going a little sour. Get some sort of safe word in place so that we know if you're feeling overwhelmed." Penny rubbed Sheldon's arm comfortingly and he nodded his head slowly.

"Okay, how do we do this?"

"We need to set you up with a dating profile first." Howard quickly filled Sheldon's details in on screen and smiled to himself as he saw the section that asked what the applicant felt about on line dating, entering 'hokum' in the applicable field. "Now we just have to see if the site matches you to any of the women." He clicked on the 'match now' icon and they waited for the results to appear. "Alright, we have two possible matches…Amelia Marie Burton and Amy Farrah Fowler. All you have to do is e-mail them to see if they are interested in meeting up with you."

"Go on, sweetie." Penny gave Sheldon a gentle nudge and he slid into Howard's vacant chair, staring at the blank screen for a few seconds before starting to type. "Sheldon! You can't start an e-mail like that!"

"Why ever not?" Sheldon swivelled around in the chair and frowned at Penny in confusion.

"Because 'Greetings fellow earthling' isn't quite the tone that we're aiming for. Shove over, let me have a go." Penny nudged Sheldon out of the way and deleted his typing.

"'Hello, my name is Sheldon Cooper and I'd like to invite you for coffee?' That's the best you can come up with?" Leonard chuckled as he read over Penny's shoulder.

"No, that's fine…if you wouldn't mind amending it to Doctor Cooper though?" Sheldon scanned the details and then tapped the screen. "Take out 'coffee' and change it to 'warm beverage'; I don't drink coffee." Penny made the changes and when Sheldon nodded, sent the e-mail out. Within a few minutes, a reply popped into his account area. Penny opened the e-mail and read it out loud

**Good evening, Dr Cooper. My name is Amy Farrah Fowler and I would be interested in meeting up with you. Perhaps this coming Saturday around 4:30 pm? I note that you have stated that you live in the Pasadena area, might I suggest the coffee shop on the corner of Palm and First? Yours AFF.**

"Well she's prompt, I'll give her that." Sheldon tapped his chin and nodded. "Reply back and tell her yes." Penny clicked the respond icon and composed a new message.

**Good evening, Dr Fowler. Saturday afternoon would be suitable, I look forward to meeting you. SLC**

"Nothing from the other one yet, but she might be offline; we can check again tomorrow." Howard leant around Penny and clicked in the favourites bar. "I've added the site to your favourites so you don't have to enter your details again when you go in and check." Sheldon nodded and glanced down at his wristwatch.

"It's getting on for ten o'clock; there's nothing else we can do for now. I'll text Stuart and tell him that there's no need for him to come back tonight."

"Yeah, I'd better head home and make sure Ma takes her medicines." Howard yawned as he powered off the laptop and collected his coat. "Keep me posted on whether you hear anything from girl number two." Sheldon gave him a nod as he walked over to tidy things away, gathering all of the papers together and securing them with a large elastic band. Howard waved goodnight and left the apartment.

"I'm going to head back to my place as well. One day I expect you to fill me in on all of the details, Sheldon, but for now I'll just say goodnight." Penny stretched up to ruffle Sheldon's hair playfully and grinned as he shied away from her touch.

"Penny!"

"Night Shelly, sleep well." Penny walked around Sheldon to tug on Leonard's arm, drawing him out onto the landing between the apartments for a more private farewell. "Night Leonard." Penny whispered as she brushed her lips over her boyfriend's mouth, and he pulled her a little closer for a longer kiss."

"Night, Penny. Movies, tomorrow?"

"Sounds great, I'll even let you pick." Penny squeezed Leonard's hand one last time and then crossed over the landing to let herself into her apartment, blowing him a kiss as she shut the door.


	13. Chapter 13

As the week drew to a close, Sheldon grew increasingly nervous. He had booked the rest of the week off, fearing that he would have been unable to devote his complete attention to his research. He had instead spend the last four days double checking every single line of the data resulting from Howard's original search. Amelia Marie Burton and Amy Farrah Fowler met all of the search parameters but only Amy Farrah Fowler had responded back to his meeting request.

On Saturday morning, Sheldon pre-sorted and pre-soaked his laundry as he wouldn't have time to complete it all that evening. Leonard saw him growing more anxious as the day went on, and decided that it would be Penny and himself accompanying Sheldon to the coffee shop that afternoon. They would head off first and grab a table at the back of the shop so that they could see everyone that walked in, Sheldon would come along shortly before the meeting time and sit himself nearer the counter.

"Buddy, we're heading out now…do you want a lift to the Lego store? You can hang out there for a while before coming over?" Leonard poked his head into Sheldon's room where the other man was cataloguing his comic-book selection. Sheldon glanced at his watch and saw that it was nearly four. He rose up from the bed and gestured to himself, he was wearing his normal attire of khaki pants and beige superhero tee.

"Do I need to change?"

"You look fine, Sheldon. Are you coming with us?" Sheldon nodded and grabbed his wallet from the top of his dresser and slipping it into the pocket of his pants. He followed Leonard down the hallway where Penny was waiting for them in the living room, she jumped up from the armchair when she saw Sheldon behind her boyfriend.

"Ready, sweetie?" Penny asked as Sheldon drew near the chair, and tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow when he looked confused at her question.

"If you mean am I ready to throw up in your purse, then yes. Anything else, then the answer is most assuredly no." Penny chuckled as she rubbed her cheek against Sheldon's shoulder and tugged him out of the door.

"Just try and think positively, Sheldon."

"Easy for you to say, it's not your breakfast threatening to make a reappearance." Sheldon groused as he followed his friends down the stairwell. Penny and Leonard just grinned at each other and kept walking, choosing not to get drawn into a long drawn out argument that would give Sheldon reason to back out.

In the car on the way to the coffee shop, Sheldon came up with at least five reasons why he shouldn't keep the coffee date; being taken over by an alien parasite was currently his favourite, closely followed by the sudden onset of a deadly contagion.

"You know, I really feel…" Sheldon opened his mouth to speak and Leonard glanced over from the driving seat with a grin.

"No…whatever outrageous excuse you've concocted in your mind…the answer is no. You've been dreaming of this moment for the last twenty years, this is your chance, Sheldon. I don't want you to regret not walking into that coffee shop…what if it really is her? Your Amy." Sheldon closed his mouth with a quiet snap and turned his head to look out of the passenger window.

"That's what I'm afraid of…what if it is her? What do I say?"

"How about 'Hello Amy, nice to finally meet you?'" Leonard suggested with a soft smile and Sheldon snorted quietly.

"What if she doesn't recognise me or remember who I am?" That was one of Sheldon's deepest fears, what if the girl of his dreams was just a figment of his fertile imagination? What if he really was crazy? His hands started twitching in his lap and Leonard reached across to still their movements.

"Relax, it's just coffee remember? If things go haywire you just mention that you do your laundry on a Saturday night and one of us will call you on your cell and you can get out of there."

"I forgot my cell!" Sheldon patted his pocket and let out a gasp of horror. "We're gonna have to turn back or cancel…"

"No need, you take mine and we'll call you from Penny's." Leonard pulled into a parking space just along from the coffee shop and turned in his seat to pass his phone across to Sheldon. "Everything's going to be fine, Sheldon. Take my car keys, Penny and I will go in first; you leave it a few minutes and then lock the car and follow us in." Sheldon nodded as he accepted the keys and phone.

"Lock the car, follow you in."

"See you soon." Penny squeezed Sheldon's shoulder lightly before she got out of the car and waited on the sidewalk for Leonard to join her. Sheldon watched from inside the car as they walked along and entered the coffee shop, he saw them sit down at a table at the rear of the shop and then Leonard walking up to the counter to order them both a drink. After a few minutes, Sheldon carefully locked the car and walked slowly along to the coffee shop himself. He took a deep breath before reaching up to pull the door open, letting his eyes adjust to the dimness of the interior after the blazing sunshine outside. Penny gave him a brief smile of reassurance as Sheldon walked over to sit down at a table near the window, perfectly placed to view anyone that entered the shop after him.

Every time the bell over the door pealed, Sheldon half rose from his seat only to slump back down in disappointment when it wasn't her. Eventually he stopped looking up and started idly completing a crossword from a left over newspaper, using it to distract his mind from wanting to bolt away. A soft tap on his left shoulder followed by the sound of someone clearing their throat had him looking up with a frown, a frown which melted away as he rose to his feet.

"Amy…" Sheldon whispered softly as he tentatively reached out with trembling fingers, hovering millimetres away from her familiar face.

"Hello, Doc…I was so hoping it would be you." Amy clasped his hand and brought it to her cheek, closing her eyes as she nuzzled into his palm.

"Amy…" Sheldon found himself unable to say anything else apart from her name, feeling his throat choke up with years of suppressed emotions. He simply opened up his arms and Amy threw herself into his embrace as they held each other tightly, Sheldon resting his chin on top of her silken hair and closing his eyes. Penny was squealing with excitement as she saw the two of them embracing and Leonard shushed her, not wanting to ruin the moment for his friend.

After a minute, or a lifetime, Sheldon pulled away slightly and smiled down at his Amy, reaching up to brush away the tears that hung on the edge of her eyelashes. He tugged her down to sit next to him at the table and she leant her head against his shoulder as they just enjoyed the sensation of being able to touch each other freely at last.

"I've been lonely these last few weeks, where have you been?" Sheldon asked quietly as he wrapped his lean fingers around Amy's smaller hand and felt her curling around his palm.

"I've been working nights while we finished up the last of our study; we probably weren't on the same sleep cycle."

"I missed you."

"Me, too." Amy rubbed her cheek over Sheldon's shoulder and breathed in his unique blend of talcum powder and citrus aftershave. "How did you find me?"

"Using a highly classified search engine designed by the State Department. We entered everything I knew about you and narrowed it down from over fourteen thousand possibilities to just two…You and someone else that were both listed on the same dating site."

"Remind me to send a thank you card to my mother." Amy replied with a grin and when Sheldon raised his eyebrow in question she continued. "Mother set my profile up on the site when I hit twenty eight and we made an agreement that I could use her George Forman grill if I agreed to make at least one date a year."

"Forget the card, I'll send your mother some roses, and I've got a grill that you can use any time you feel like it." Sheldon gave Amy's hand a squeeze of affection and dropped a kiss to the end of her nose when she laughed. "Do you want to get out of her and go somewhere we can talk?"

"My place is over in Glendale; take about thirty minutes at this time of day."

"Hmm…I'm over on Los Robles, about five minutes away."

"Your place it is." Amy rose up from the table and looked down at the person she had shared most of her life secrets with. Sheldon bit his lip and looked a bit hesitant. "What is it?"

"Well…I've been pre-soaking my laundry as I like to do it on a Saturday night; things are a bit of a mess in there at the moment." Sheldon wasn't aware that he had inadvertently given out the panic stations alert until Leonard's phone started buzzing across the table. He glanced down and saw that it was Penny calling and swiped his finger across the screen to reject the call.

"Sheldon, I wouldn't care if your place looked like world war three! I just want to go somewhere so that we can talk privately for a while without feeling like we are in the middle of a goldfish bowl." Amy gestured to the plate glass window and Sheldon hunched his shoulders forward.

Penny nudged Leonard, who threw his hands up in the air. "He's obviously uncomfortable…look at the way he's sitting all hunched over like that. We've got to do something!"

"Too late…look." Leonard nudged his girlfriend and jerked his head over to the front of the shop, where Sheldon had placed a hand in the small of Amy's back and was gently steering her out of the shop. "Still think he needs rescuing?"


	14. Chapter 14

After spending the entire ride back from the coffee shop chatting nineteen to the dozen, both Sheldon and Amy fell silent as they walked up the four flights of stairs to Sheldon's apartment. They turned the last corner of the stairwell side by side and their hands brushed together, sending a tiny jolt of sensation through the both of them.

"Oh boy…that was unexpected." Sheldon paused a few steps from the landing and hesitatingly stretched out his pinkie so that it lightly touched Amy's forefinger and then his breath caught in his throat as she turned her hand so that their fingers entwined completely. "There it is again…"

"Is that your apartment?" Amy wrapped her fingers completely around Sheldon's palm and nodded her head towards the blue door at the top of the stairs. Sheldon nodded, and started walking again; keeping their hands clasped tightly together. He fumbled slightly with his keys at first and then inserted the correct one in the lock; pushing the door open with a shy grin.

"Well…here we are, I told you it was a little messy."

"It's not so bad," Amy replied as she walked in behind Sheldon and glanced around, grinning when she saw that Sheldon's idea of 'messy' was the loaded laundry hamper placed near the front door, presumably ready for when he made his way down to the laundry facilities in the basement. "It's no worse than your cramped little apartment at Harvard; it never ceased to amaze me how you persuaded the Dean to re-arrange your weekend lecture series so that you could still keep to your laundry schedule."

"Heh…" Sheldon let out a breathy chuckle and gave Amy's hand a light squeeze as he led them both over to the couch and tugged her down to sit beside him. "How he ever thought that he could get any student to attend Saturday night lectures in the first place still puzzles me…I imagine that my new time slot of ten until one didn't win me any favours either."

"You know, it was your stories about Harvard that had me choosing them out of all of the other places that I had acceptance letters for." Amy said as she leant her head against Sheldon's shoulder and felt him raise his arm slightly so that it wrapped around her shoulders; it seemed only natural that he should follow that move with a gentle kiss dropped against her forehead as he rested his cheek against her hair.

"It's strange." Sheldon said suddenly and Amy tilted her head back so that she could look in his eyes.

"Strange, how?"

"We came here to talk…we should be bombarding each other with questions about anything and everything; and yet I feel quite content in just sitting here knowing that you are actually sitting by my side, no longer a dream but an actual reality." Sheldon reached up to lightly run his finger over the satiny softness of Amy's cheekbone and gave her a soft smile, answered with a tender smile of her own as she reached up to capture his hand and press a kiss against his palm. Sheldon shivered lightly in reaction and Amy hummed under her breath.

"It's stronger now isn't it?" She didn't even have to explain her cryptic question, seeing the answer reflected back in Sheldon's azure gaze. "It's not the foggy, almost disconnected feeling when we were dreaming…"

"That's because it's real now…all those years of waiting and yearning and now it's real." Sheldon whispered softly as he cupped Amy's cheek with his palm, wiping away the dampness that appeared on her lashes with his thumb. "Don't cry, my angel…I've got you now." With a gentle nudge, Sheldon moved Amy around on the couch and enfolded her into his arms, completely enveloping her in a faintly talcum scented warm embrace. Amy's arms snuck around his waist to rest in the small of his back and Sheldon's hands rested on Amy's hips as they simply enjoyed the sensation of holding each other close. Sheldon raised his eyes to the door as he noticed Leonard peering around the crack, and without breaking his hold on Amy, Sheldon let his eyes flick over to the bowl on the table. Leonard nodded and reached in with one hand to snag his car keys and cell phone out of the bowl before silently closing the apartment door and backing away.

"What was that?" Amy murmured softly, without lifting her head from where she was nuzzling the crook of Sheldon's neck.

"Oh, just Leonard coming in to collect his keys. I forgot that I still had them in my jacket pocket when we left the coffee shop, they must have had to walk back or they caught a cab." Sheldon settled his cheek back against the silky hair on Amy's crown, closing his eyes as he breathed in the sweet scent of her anti-dandruff shampoo. "You still smell like apples, I once opened all of the bottles of shampoo in the supermarket once trying to find your particular blend…when I found out which one was yours I bought a bottle and kept it in my nightstand drawer. Whenever I was having a hard day and it wasn't close to bedtime, I would crack open the top and just take in the fragrance."

"I keep a canister of baby powder in my bedside cabinet; I sometimes sprinkle a little over the…" Amy's voice trailed off when she realised that she was about to reveal one of her innermost secrets, Sheldon stopped rubbing his cheek against her hair and leant back a little.

"You sprinkle baby powder over what exactly?" Sheldon grinned faintly at the rosy hue that highlighted Amy's cheeks and she coughed a little to clear her throat.

"Would you believe me if I said the inside of my shoe?"

"Not really…but if you don't want to tell me that's fine." Sheldon pulled away slightly and Amy let out a little murmur of distress, snuggling closer to his body and pressing a soft kiss against his chin.

"Alright, alright! Whenever I'm lonely…I sprinkle a little talc over the cuddly Yoda that I keep in my bedroom and I snuggle up to it as I pretend that it's you…Go ahead and laugh, I know that you want to." Amy buried her head against Sheldon's chest, fully expecting him to break out into a chuckle at any second. To her surprise, Sheldon simply cuddled her closer and let out a sigh.

"As it appears to be confession time…I keep the 'Little House on the Prairie' DVD box set in my room, I watch a few episodes whenever Leonard stays over at Penny's or is out with the guys for the night."

"I've got the 'Next Generation' and complete 'Star Wars' DVD box sets; I even went out and bought the 'prequel' trilogy although that was a costly mistake…you could have warned me that they were pretty awful."

"How is 'Amy, don't ever go and see 'The Phantom Menace'' not a warning? Honestly, woman you'd have thought you'd have learnt your lesson after lining up 'Babylon 5' in your Netflix queue." Sheldon clucked his tongue in disapproval and Amy poked her finger in his ribs lightly.

"I admit that was pretty bad, but I still wanted to watch the whole prequel thing; I quite liked the last one, I thought it fitted quite well with the original…how Vader started off with the best intentions but just placed his trust in the wrong person. I bought the rest because I wanted to feel connected to you…they were shows that you enjoyed and they became my guilty pleasure."

"Have you seen any of the other 'Star Trek' spin offs?" Sheldon enquired, rubbing the spot where Amy had jabbed him and loosening his hold of her slightly.

"Hmm…a few 'Deep Space 9' seasons, but not all of them; I quite enjoyed 'Voyager' but couldn't quite get to grips with the one with the guy from 'Quantum Leap'."

"Scott Bakula." Sheldon filled in helpfully and Amy nodded. "The spin off in question was the ill-fated 'Enterprise', a prequel focusing on Captain Jonathon Archer and his crew about fifty years before James Kirk took the helm."  
"Yeah, I watched the first couple of episodes but it just didn't capture my attention like TOS or TNG."

"Ooh, you're even using the right abbreviations…" Sheldon clapped his hands together gleefully and Amy giggled as she executed a mock curtsey.

"Thank you, kind sir."

"You're very welcome." Sheldon bowed over his hand and they chuckled softly as they clasped hands again. "I've been a very poor host and haven't even offered you a beverage. Tea?" Amy nodded enthusiastically and when Sheldon rose up from the couch, followed him over to the kitchen area. He glanced behind him and grinned. "I'm not going to disappear, you're sticking to me like you're my shadow or something."

"Sorry…I guess I'm just afraid that this is all just another dream and I'm going to wake up alone in my apartment and you'll be gone." Amy's tone was so full of doubt and fear that Sheldon set the kettle that he had been in the process of filling up, back down onto the counter and held out his hand to Amy.

"Come here you silly thing." He wiggled his fingers and Amy gave him a slightly doubtful glance but moved forward anyway. Sheldon immediately wrapped his arms back around his waist and lowered his head to press a brief kiss against her soft lips. "Is that real enough for you?" He murmured against her lips and felt Amy smile against his mouth as she kissed him in return.

"Maybe you'd better do it again, just to corroborate your findings." Amy whispered softly and this time it was Sheldon that grinned as he placed a series of brief pecks along her mouth.

"Well…I do have a tendency to perform things in a multiple of three…" Sheldon hummed slightly as he placed his mouth firmly over Amy's, nudging her lips apart and tasting her warm minty breath on his tongue. Her tongue slipped out to slide against his, and they started a slow game of advance and retreat as their mouths locked together as they sank deeper into the kiss. Sheldon reluctantly broke the kiss when he felt his lungs burning in desperate need for air, his hands continuously roving over Amy's back not wanting to break their connection completely.

"Wow…that was some first kiss." Amy wheezed out, her head collapsing against Sheldon's upper chest as she too struggled to breathe.

"That was more like our eighth or ninth…" Sheldon replied huskily as his hands finally settled on the curve of Amy's hips, resting comfortably against the waistband of her thick, denim skirt. Amy glanced up into his warm, blue gaze and smiled softly as she raised her hand to cup his cheek.

"That was the first one that really counted…all of the others were just pale imitations compared to the real thing." Sheldon turned his face into her hand and pressed a soft kiss to her palm, closing his eyes as he relished the feel of her in his arms.

"Amy…"

"Yes?" Amy closed her own eyes as she snuggled into Sheldon's warm embrace, humming quietly under her breath as his hands started roaming around her lower back and waiting hopefully for them to drop just a few centimetres…

"Would you like to see my room?"


	15. Chapter 15

It was a very different Sheldon Cooper that opened his apartment door to his friends a few weeks later; ever since he and Amy had met at the coffee shop he had taken to dead bolting the door to the apartment to prevent anyone from walking straight inside as was their normal habit. Leonard had taken to spending more of his time over the hallway in Penny's apartment, leaving Sheldon free to entertain Amy in the lounge, the bathroom and once even up against the kitchen counter.

'Good evening…don't just stand in the doorway gawking, come on inside!' Sheldon smiled widely as he waved his friends across the threshold and one by one they stepped into the living room and immediately noticed the few softer touches of a woman's hand around the room. Instead of the scratchy beige throw tossed over the back of the leather couch, there was now a beautifully crafted patchwork quilt, and the rug had been switched out to something a little less geometric in design, the replacement was a soft terracotta shade which blended beautifully with the natural wood furnishings of the floor to ceiling bookcases behind the couch.

As Penny and Leonard headed for their usual seat in the large stuffed armchair, Penny noticed that there was another quilt folded over the back and ran her fingers over the softly worn material. 'That's lovely Sheldon, wherever did you pick that up from?'

'Oh, Amy made that one and the one on the back of the couch; she said the apartment needed a little softening up. She replaced the drapes as well.' Sheldon continued smiling warmly as he gestured over to the windows with an elegant wave of his hand, and the gang looked over to see that the plain blue drapes had been removed and replaced with soft cream voile panels and each window was edged with wooden shutters that folded across the openings for added privacy.

'I made dinner this evening, I hope that's alright with everyone?' Amy's quiet voice coming from the hallway had everyone whirling around in surprise; her footsteps along the wooden flooring had been so slight that no one had heard her approach. 'I know you were probably all looking forward to your takeout…'

'Are you kidding me?' Howard blurted out as he ran across the living room to snag the large office chair before Raj or Stuart could sit down. 'I'll take a home cooked meal over takeout any day of the week.'

'I'll eat anything,' Stuart raised his hand slightly, his face colouring a little. 'My usual diet is something out of a can that I've warmed up on my hotplate.' He shuffled over to sit in Leonard's desk chair and looked a little self-conscious about being invited over to join the others unexpectedly. Amy crossed over and tugged Stuart to his feet, pulling him to one side to hold a whispered conversation. Penny saw that Sheldon rose up from the couch and walked over to the whispering pair and soon his low tones joined Amy's as they both talked quietly with Stuart. Amy's arm had crept around Sheldon's waist as they spoke and Penny narrowed her eyes at the way Sheldon seemed to lean into her touch.

'Oh my God!' Penny nearly burst Leonard's eardrum with her shrill squeal of excitement and everyone's eyes turned to the blonde as she practically vibrated in excitement. 'The two of them totally did it!'

'Sorry, what?' Howard tilted his head to the side as he tried to decipher Penny's strange behaviour, as Raj's mouth fell open as he followed Penny's line of sight and saw how closely Sheldon and Amy were standing.

'How did we miss it?' The astrophysicist muttered as he turned to Leonard; the other scientist was sitting calmly in the armchair and pretended to be completely absorbed in watching a bird pecking away at the windowsill. 'You knew!' Raj exclaimed, jabbing a finger toward Leonard. 'You knew, and you didn't think to tell us!'

'Sheldon's my closest friend and I respected his privacy. I mean, come on guys…we were burgled once and he still didn't use the dead bolt unless we were heading off to bed…He meets a woman that he's dreamt of his whole life and suddenly he's using the dead bolt; it really wasn't that hard to figure out…and besides he hasn't needed me to drive him to work for the last three weeks so it's just another reason to like Amy even more.'

'I guess the cat's well and truly out of the bag now, darlin'…' Sheldon murmured lovingly as he wrapped his arm around Amy's waist and rubbed his chin across the top of her hair. 'Do you want to tell them or shall I?'

'You tell them, Doc…it is your apartment after all.' Amy replied back, giving Sheldon that special smile that brightened her whole face and made her eyes sparkle.

'Nuh-huh…' Sheldon tightened his grip a little and shook his head, 'Our apartment, or don't you remember that little scrap of paper we both signed?' Both of them sighed wistfully at the events of the past few days and their hands clasped together loosely as they linked their fingers together. Sheldon raised his head and linked gazes with Leonard, giving his former roommate a slight nod of his head. Leonard winked back imperceptibly and nudged Penny aside so that he could get up out of the armchair and head toward the fridge, where he rummaged around on the lower shelf before pulling out two chilled bottles of champagne; setting them on the counter and popping the corks silently. Amy had already lined up a tray of glasses, and now Leonard poured the fizzy liquid into the waiting crystal and picked up the first two as he handed them across to Sheldon and Amy.

'What's going on?' Penny narrowed her eyes at the way that Sheldon casually accepted the glass from his roommate before turning to Leonard. 'Leonard?'

'Just take a glass, it will become clear in a minute.' Leonard murmured as he held out the tray to the others; waiting until everyone had a glass in their hand before clearing his throat. 'I took an unexpected day off from the university on Monday when I received a rather garbled call from Sheldon's older brother, George. He told me to meet him at the courthouse at noon as I quote 'Shelly's gone and got himself into a bit of a pickle'. I immediately assumed that Sheldon had got himself locked up after breaking one of his celebrity restraining orders again.' Leonard paused as the guys started chuckling and then continued. 'Imagine my surprise when instead of being taken into the holding cells, George steered me toward the judge's chambers instead. It was there that I witnessed a truly special event, and one that created a memory that I will treasure forever. Guys, please raise your glasses to Doctor and Doctor Sheldon Cooper.' Leonard raised his glass and gently tapped it to the side of first Sheldon's and then Amy's glass. 'Congratulations, I love you guys.'

'Thank you, Leonard…for everything.' Amy whispered, her voice a little husky with emotion as she recalled the utter joy on Leonard's face as he had walked through the door to see Sheldon and Amy standing with their arms wrapped around each other as they waited for the judge to join them. Leonard had immediately rushed over to fling his arms around Sheldon and for once the other man had accepted his embrace and even went so far as to return it with a slight squeeze.

'Sheldon, Amy…I wish you many, many years of happiness together; you deserve it, and thanks again for letting me use your apartment until your lease runs out.' Stuart grinned over at Amy and raised his glass. 'Cheers.'

'I can't believe it…' Penny exclaimed as she rose up from the chair and pointed her finger at Sheldon. 'How could you just run off and get married without saying a word to any of us? Do we mean that little to you?'

'Penny, we just wanted a quiet ceremony without any fancy frills or fuss…I called my mother and explained the whole thing, she understood why neither of us wanted a big hoohah…George flew out for the ceremony and we stayed in a little hotel near the airport for a few nights until he went back yesterday. Can't you just be happy for us?' Sheldon looked so miserable at the thought of upsetting one of his best friends and Penny immediately felt ashamed. She thrust her glass in Leonard's direction and stepped up in front of Sheldon and Amy; pulling them both into her scented embrace.

'Of course I'm happy for you both, you whackadoodle. It doesn't mean that I can't be made at you for not having a nice reception afterwards though.' Penny leant up to brush a soft kiss against Sheldon's cheek and then did the same for Amy, tucking a strand of the brunette's hair behind her ear. 'I would have loved to play dress up with you, Amy…we could have gone dress shopping; had a spa day, the full treatment.' Penny sounded as though she was a schoolgirl denied a treat and Sheldon let out a breathy chuckle as he tugged his wife out of Penny's clutches and hid her behind his lanky frame.

'My wife is perfect to me in every sense and doesn't need to have a ton of makeup to make me want her however, if Amy wants to join you in a day of womanly fun then who am I to say no?' There was a snort from behind Sheldon and he chuckled lightly as Amy came around to stand behind him and shook her head at Penny as she wrinkled her nose up at the thought of traipsing around town behind the blonde.

Raj sighed wistfully at Sheldon's statement and walked over to clasp his hands in front of his face as he lowered his head. 'Shadi Mubarak.' Raj raised his head and laid his hand over Sheldon and Amy's clasped fingers. 'May Parvati bless your union and keep you together always.'

'Thank you, Rajesh.' Amy blinked back a tear at the way Raj bowed his head over their linked hands, and murmured a few lines from the traditional Hindu ceremony, before he walked quickly away, wiping his eyes surreptitiously. Finally, Howard made his way over to the couple and raised his glass.

'I never would have thought that it would be Sheldon that was the first of us to give up his bachelor hood; but looking at the two of you know, I can see why he did it without regret. I have never seen him look so happy before and that's all because of you Amy…' Howard raised his right hand and spread his fingers slightly. 'Life long and prosper.'

Sheldon and Amy both raised their hands and returned Howard's gesture with the proper salute.

'To Sheldon and Amy.' Howard raised his glass, and everyone followed suit.

'Sheldon and Amy.'

**AN: So there you have it; it's taken a long time for me to be able to write these characters again after suffering a loss in my personal life which has made it hard for me to write anything that's fluffy and sweet for a long time. I thank each and every one of you for sticking with me to the very end and can only apologise for leaving the story hanging for so long. Thank you again xx**


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